Augsburg College Honors Shakopee Mdewakanton for Generosity

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augsburg college honors smsc.jpg Augsburg College celebrated its 6th

Annual Pow Wow on March 29 at the Augsburg campus. This year’s event

was again hosted by the Augsburg Indigenous Student Association and

the Augsburg American Indian Student Support Services Program also

receives support from various program offices within the college

including the Office of the President.

Approximately 1,500 people attended

the event, including dancers, drummers and both local and national

vendors. The bleachers were filled with families and community

members to participate, not only in the pow wow, but, in two honoring

ceremonies. Augsburg undergraduate and graduate students who

graduated were honored with a blanket ceremony.

Augsburg College also gave a ceremony

of appreciation and gratitude to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux

Community for its most recent and generous donation of $250,000. The

donation was added to the current Shakopee Endowed Scholarship Fund,

established in 1991. To date, this fund assisted over 75 Native

American students attending Augsburg College.

On behalf of all those involved with

our request to SMSC, we are absolutely thrilled and extremely

appreciative of this most generous gift. The SMSC, once again,

serves as a shining example of its ongoing commitment in the area of

“cradle to career” educational opportunities in our native

communities, and in our case – of providing – scholarship support

to American Indian Students seeking degree completion at Augsburg

College.

Bonnie Wallace is a Fond du Lac

Band of Lake Superior Chippewa citizen, former Director of the

American Indian Student Support Program (1978-1996) and seven year

member of the Board of Regents.