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Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Director Emeritus of the American Indian Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-MadisonA nationally recognized social worker, community organizer, activist, and political leader, Ada Deer is a champion of Indian rights who led the successful campaign to restore federal recognition of the Menominee Tribe. As head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, she participated in the development of U.S. policies on international human rights and supported a strong national position on the rights of indigenous peoples everywhere. Born in Keshena, Wisconsin, Deer became , in 1957, the first Menominee undergraduate to receive a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1961, she was the first Native American to receive a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University. In 1992, Deer became the first Native American woman in Wisconsin to run for Congress, winning the Democratic primary without political action committee funding. The following year, Deer became the first woman appointed an assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the US Department of Interior. As the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs until 1997, she helped set federal policy for more than 555 American Indian tribes nationwide. She approved tribal-state gaming compacts, extended recognition to 12 tribes, and settled a century-long border dispute with the Crow Tribe that restored tribal lands and provided compensation for lost coal reserves and revenue. Both before and after her years in office, Deer taught classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work. She developed groundbreaking classes in the 1970s on Native American issues and multiculturalism, and created the first program to provide social work training on reservations. Deer chaired the Native American Rights Fund and helped revitalize the Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She organized workshops to train American Indian women as leaders. She helped implement American Indian participation in the Peace Corps, designed a program to provide transitional support for minority rural people adjusting to urban life and worked with inner city youths in delinquency prevention programs. She also co-founded the Indian Community School in Milwaukee. In January 2000, Deer became director of the American Indian Studies Program at UW-Madison, retiring in 2007. |
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