Tribal Nations Partnerships

Where this starts

Porter’s land acknowledgment recognizes that Porter Falls and the campus sit on land that was historically home to Ho-Chunk and Ojibwe peoples before treaty cessions and settlement in the nineteenth century. Tribal nations are sovereign governments, and the university’s relationship with them is government-to-institution, not a campus program. This page describes the university’s side of that relationship: what Porter has committed to, who is responsible, and how a tribal government, a student or a faculty member gets a question answered.

Porter does not speak for any nation, and nothing here should be read as a nation’s view of the university.

The Office of Tribal Relations

The office opened in 2021 and has two staff: Corinne Ashby, director of tribal relations, and a program coordinator. The director reports to the chancellor’s chief of staff, not to a division, so tribal questions do not queue behind other business. The office:

• holds the reserved tribal liaison seat on the strategic-planning steering committee and attends the chancellor’s cabinet when a matter affecting tribal nations is on the agenda;
• runs the tuition-waiver process with the Registrar and Financial Aid;
• coordinates consultation on curriculum, research and collections (below);
• organizes Native American Heritage Month events in November with Multicultural Student Services and the Native American Student Council, including the council’s spring powwow.

Tuition and scholarships

In fall 2026, 41 students are using the tuition waiver and 18 hold the Native Nations Scholarship. The waiver is applied after Pell and state grants, so most recipients also have money left for living costs. To use it, send proof of enrollment from your nation to the office once; it carries forward each year. Nonresidents and descendants who are not enrolled members are not eligible for the waiver but can apply for the scholarship and for other Porter scholarships.

Consultation

Consultation means asking before a decision, in writing, with enough time for a tribal government to answer on its own schedule. Porter commits to it in four areas:

• Curriculum. The Native American studies minor was built with tribal-nation advisers, who review its courses every three years. Any new course that teaches tribal history, language or culture is shared with the office before it goes to Faculty Senate.
• Research. Studies involving tribal members, tribal lands or tribal data need the relevant nation’s approval in addition to IRB review. The IRB will not approve a protocol without it. The office helps researchers find the right contact; it does not grant approval itself.
• Collections. The university archives completed an inventory in 2024 and found a small number of items that may fall under federal repatriation law. Consultation on those items is ongoing, and the archives will not display or lend them meanwhile.
• Land and water. Projects on the Porter River and the Millrace, including the river monitoring network, notify the office at the planning stage.

What has not been done yet

The 2024 listening sessions produced requests the university has not yet met. A dedicated Native student space is still a shared room in Founders Union. Porter has no full-time Native faculty in the Native American studies minor. And the waiver does not cover fees, which for an on-campus student are $1,420 a year. The first two are in the strategic plan’s equity priority; the third is in the FY2028 budget request. Progress is reported each May to the steering committee and posted on the strategic plan dashboard.