Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education (EQI) is the April Share the Plate recipient. Located on the UWM campus, EQI was founded to strengthen and celebrate American Indian education at the local, regional and national level and to share Indigenous teaching practices from around the world.
Since its 2010 inception, it has supported development of education programs at UWM that connect Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Faculty endowments by EQI have contributed to robust research activity and local partnerships with Urban Ecology Center and the First Nations Studies at Milwaukee Public Schools, to name a few. Several Indigenous student organizations and an outdoor Fire Circle encourage interaction of all UWM students and involve the surrounding community. Outside speakers, powwows, and the opportunity to audit Indigenous courses need support in order to continue to be available to the wider community.
The Institute is named after Wisconsin’s first public school teacher, Electa Quinney. In 1828, she established a no-fee one-room school for Indigenous and white children in Kaukauna. To learn more about Electa Quinney and the Institute, visit the website https://www.uwm.edu/eqi. Dan O’Keefe can also be contacted at danok@att.net.
Contribute securely online at this link or mail your check to First Church made payable to: UWM Foundation and in the memo line write: Electa Quinney Institute. We’ll forward your contribution to them.