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.
On their own, these gestures feel performative. While important, they are simply a beginning. Until Indigenous communities are fully represented and seen on campus, these initiatives will fail in their goals.
Despite UW-Madison’s visible endorsements, which include plaques and flags, there is a notable pause when it comes to advocating for them politically. The university has rarely, if ever, explicitly called out violence against Indigenous people, or taken a stand on institutional or political issues that affect the Ho-Chunk people. While initiatives like the Wisconsin Tuition Promise help cover tuition for Native Students from federally recognized tribes, it does not offer any systemic change. UW-Madison still chooses not to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official university holiday, despite being built on ancestral land, revealing how limited their commitment is. This year, the day largely passed unnoticed and unacknowledged by the administration, showing how recognition stops at the surface. UW administrators have been silent on the enforcement of treaty obligations, land rights or even legal sovereignty, which have all been under threat by the Trump administration.
With 137 Native American students, it is more necessary than ever to support their identity and history as it pertains to the university. Making up less than 1% of the student population, it wouldn’t even require extensive resources to commemorate them and to center their voices. UW-Madison could create partnerships with local Ho-Chunk communities to preserve language, culture and history. Small but intentional investments would show that acknowledgement is more than words — it’s the university valuing the people whose land it occupies and the history that shaped it.
Acknowledgment without any sort of follow through is hollow. The university has an opportunity and obligation to move past empty gestures and truly show that Native American people, their complex history and ongoing struggles are genuinely valued. There’s a unique opportunity to demonstrate the school as a powerful force for justice and ally for Indigenous people, honoring the land it inhabits and the people who have called it home for generations by combining recognition with action.
