FOND DU LAC TRIBAL COLLEGE RECEIVES $1
MILLION IN GRANTS FOR PROJECTS
CLOQUET, Minn. – The Environmental
Institute at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College has been
awarded more than $1,150,000 in total grant project funding through
the United States Department of Agriculture to continue innovative
projects and expand capacity in science, technology, engineering, and
math programming.
The Environmental Institute, along
with project partner Fond du Lac Band Resource Management, will work
together to accomplish the objectives established in the grant
projects. Grant were made possible because of the partnership
agreement between the Fond du Lac Band and Fond du Lac Tribal and
Community College.
The Environmental Institute promotes
educational and cultural growth in studies related to natural
resources and the environment. Programs fulfill the college’s role
as a Land Grant Institution through extension programs covering
research, education, and community outreach.
Three USDA Land Grant Extension grants
totaling around $740,000 will support ongoing extension programs
beginning in September 2014 and continuing through August of 2016 and
September 2018, depending on the project. A new USDA Capacity
Building grant of approximately $410,000 also begins in September and
ends in August 2018.
The grants are intended to support
three major projects. The first includes the college’s Seed Library
(The Bimaaji’idiwin Ojibwe Garden), is a research and demonstration
garden that preserves traditional Ojibwe cropping systems. It also
incorporates modern strategies for organic food and medicinal plant
production.
The second project for development is
the St. Louis River Watch Program, which is an annual water quality
monitoring program of the St. Louis River watershed and western Lake
Superior basin.
The third and final project that was
awarded a grant was the Thirteen Moons Program, connecting people to
natural resources. The tribe describes the program as providing
nine-to-12 seasonal content workshops on natural resource activities
such as a Sugarbush Tour, Wild Berry Camp, and Manoomin Camp.
"Our Thirteen Moons program
reaches around 2,000 community members each year and is a leader in
connecting people with natural resources and Ojibwe culture. Our
River Watch program is almost 20 years-old and continues to teach
over 400 students a year about our local rivers. The Bimaaji’idiwin
Ojibwe Garden is continuing its great work in promoting local, fresh
foods and is helping more people see that they can garden,” FDLTCC
Environmental Institute director Courtney Kowalczak said.
Depending on the grant project,
support completion is expected between August 2016 and September
2018.
SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON ANNOUNCES
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. – The Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux Community recently announced nine new recipients of
the SMSC Endowed Scholarship at the University of Minnesota for the
2014-2015 academic year. This scholarship program is designed to
recruit and retain talented American Indian students with
demonstrated financial need.
Since the program began in 2009, 192
students from 48 different tribes in 18 states have received this
scholarship. Eighty-three of them are enrolled this year: 59
undergraduate students and 24 graduate students.
The nine new scholarship recipients
for the 2014-2015 academic year come from across the United States
and from seven different tribes. The 2014-2015 SMSC Endowed
Scholarship recipients include: Raven Ziegler, Lower Brule Sioux
Tribe; Gerard Sordelet, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa;
Misty Peterson, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; Hannah
Smith, White Earth Nation; Eli Balber-Herman, Red Cliff Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa; Chilah Brown, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe; Phillip
Gullikson, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Tribes; Jason Weaver, Lac
Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe; and Robert Budreau,
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Some of the students’ majors include
elementary education, political science, environmental studies and
public affairs.
The SMSC Endowed Scholarship was
established through a $2.5 million gift from the Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community. The University of Minnesota matches the interest
earned on this endowment fund with proceeds dedicated to providing
scholarships for qualified American Indian students. The University’s
Office for Equity and Diversity administers the scholarship.
The primary goal of the SMSC Endowed
Scholarship is to support incoming University of Minnesota freshmen
and transfer students who demonstrate financial need. Scholarships
may also be awarded to newly admitted graduate and professional
students in specific disciplines. For undergraduates, scholarships
are renewable for up to four years or until graduation (whichever
comes first), contingent upon academic performance. For graduate and
professional students, the length of funding is contingent upon the
school of enrollment, academic performance, and degree program, and
is determined on a case-by-case basis.
OJIBWE AUTHOER LOUISE ERDRICH RECEIVES
TWO MAJOR AWARDS
NEW YORK CITY – Ojibwe author Louise
Erdrich was awarded the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in
American Fiction in a ceremony held in New York City on Sept. 29.
The prize, which includes a cash
stipend of $25,000, was announced Sept. 9 by The PEN American Center.
The judges for the award were authors
E.L. Doctorow, Zadie Smith and Edwidge Danticat. In a statement, the
judges praised Erdrich’s work, “Pursuing the seeds of her own
lineage she has drawn comprehensive portraits of Native American
life, followed German immigrants in cramped boats across the
Atlantic, and delved inwards, right back to conception, in her
wonderful non-fiction account of childbearing, ‘The Blue Jay’s
Dance’ … She is a writer only America could have produced,
committed to the extraordinary project of capturing a complex land
and a various people in their own voices, and in hers.”
Erdrich’s novels include “Love
Medicine,” ”The Plague of Doves” and “The Round House,” the
latter of which was named winner of the National Book Award for
fiction in 2012.
The 59-year-old daughter of a
German-American father and a French-American-Ojibwe mother, Erdrich
expressed her delight about the honor, “Getting this award would
intimidate the hell out of me if I weren’t so excited,” Erdrich
wrote.
Past winners include Philip Roth,
Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo and E. L. Doctorow.
Last month, Erdrich was awarded with
the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for illustrating through her words
that U.S. history includes violence, discrimination and neglect,
Sharon Rab, co-chairwoman of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Foundation said. “Her work reminds us that we are not observers but
participants in the national history of the ownership of land and the
taking of territory.”
Erdrich is a member of the Turtle
Mountain Chippewa Tribal and was raised in North Dakota. She is the
author of 14 novels as well as poetry, short stories, children’s
books and a memoir of early motherhood. She also owns Birchbark
Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis.
