Each year, tens of thousands of prospective students explore campus, weighing the pros and cons of a future education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I still remember my own experience visiting campus for the first time. After the customary stops at Library Mall and Memorial Union, we arrived at the bottom of Bascom Hill, where the tour guides delivered a land acknowledgement speech recognizing the Ho-Chunk Nation as the ancestral land the university was built on.
Shortly afterward, we moved on. The words felt meaningful, but also glossed over. I always wondered how the Ho-Chunk people felt about these statements and the administration’s lack of action. That moment made me question how deeply UW-Madison supported the ancestral land the university was built upon.
It is true the university has made symbolic gestures to commemorate the identity of the Ho-Chunk people, such as naming one of its lakeshore residencies Dejope Hall. The name is derived from the word “teejop,” which means “four lakes” in the Ho-Chunk language. However, the name alone doesn’t erase the history of the land being ancestral. In 2019, UW-Madison created a heritage marker on the bottom of Bascom Hill titled “Our Shared Future,” highlighting the fact the university sits on Ho-Chunk land. However, it begs the question of how these communities are still being recognized in this “future.” More recently, in 2023, the Ho-Chunk Clan Circle sculpture, designed by artists from their community, was added to campus as a reminder of Native American’s presence. These initiatives are meaningful, but they are simply a starting point in the long journey towards genuine inclusion…