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Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Posted 04/22/08 • Media Contact: Genevieve Haas • (603) 646-3661
Ada Deer
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Director Emeritus of the American Indian Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A 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 was appointed the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the first Native American woman to hold that position. While in office, Deer helped set federal policy for more than 550 federally recognized tribes, 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.
In 1993, 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.
Among Deer's various accomplishments, she 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.
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. She also co-founded the Indian Community School in Milwaukee, organized leadership workshops for Indian women, and helped to implement Indian participation in the Peace Corps.
In January 2000, Deer became director of the American Indian Studies Program at UW-Madison, retiring in 2007.
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