D-A-N-I-E-L-L-E,
last name, D-Long, D-E, capital
L-O-N-G.
And which tribe are you from?
I'm with the Ho-Chunk Canadians.
Okay, thank you so much.
A powerful speech this
morning. Coming out of it, what are
some of your first thoughts?
My first thoughts are, you know,
his end note, you know, unifying,
standing together in solidarity
and moving forward together as
tribal nations and as state
representatives.
respect and honor of
our unique relationships between our
nations.
And in that unique relationship,
he mentioned education quite a
bit, and he mentioned UW-Madison
offering free tuition to Native
students, but he also mentioned
students in reservations and
in rural areas may be
concerned or intimidated about
coming to school in Madison.
Do you think there should be more
offerings like this to other
campuses to meet Native students
where they are?
Absolutely, education is power
and in order to empower
all tribal individuals we
need to best serve them as
individuals.
So college is sometimes
a scary and threatening thought
to think that you have to remove
yourself from your family and your
community and spread your wings
and go to a large
campus some place.
But having that ability to
stay within your community and
continue to learn and be educated
and bring that back to your
community. or bring it out
into, you know, here at
the state capitol.
So I think every opportunity we can
provide for our students
in seeking out higher education
or even secondary education
is beneficial in that tuition
waiver. I want to thank UW for
that is definitely appreciated
and profound step towards
educational equity.
I also want to ask you again about
education. He mentioned Act 31.
Do you think that's enough to
get out the knowledge that students
need to understand Native American
history, or should there be more?
Act 31, I'm
extremely grateful for.
Wisconsin has been very
progressive in making sure that
our children get their rights
within Indian education, but
yes, there's always more to be done.
I think, you know,
so much of our tribal
and cultural contributions
need to be recognized in
more classes than just history.
We are alive. We are here today
Thanks for watching! We have youth
who deserve to see themselves
in the curriculum, not only
reflected in who their teachers or
who their administration is or what
their buildings look like,
we need to have a wider curriculum
that incorporates,
you know, we as tribal nations
have unique tribal
relations with the state and
our students and children
are in every county
except for two within the state as
far as whole chunks are concerned.
except for two counties.
We have whole chunks living
everywhere and going to public
schools.
So they deserve to see themselves
not only in every
subject matter, but in every school.
And Act 31 has helped with that,
but also providing
for teachers,
American Indian teachers to get.