American Indian Curriculum Services in the Mary T. Kellner Teacher Education Center supports faculty, staff, and students as they include and integrate American Indian history, culture, and tribal sovereignty throughout School of Education curricula.
Omar Poler (Mole Lake Sokaogon Ojibwe), the American Indian Curriculum Services (AICS) coordinator, provides a range of professional support, including individual consultations, classroom lectures, and placed-based teaching and learning for classes and groups through UW-Madison First Nations Cultural Landscape Tours.
American Indian Curriculum Services also advocates for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples within teacher education and the long term Indigenization of education following the First Peoples Principles of Learning
AICS participates in a host of campus and community partnerships to support inclusion of American Indian Studies in PK-16 education, especially regarding the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the 12 First Nations of Wisconsin.
The office was originally created in response to “Act 31” legislation which emerged from the recommendation of the 1984 Ad Hoc Commission on Racism, which convened to address the racism and ignorance demonstrated towards American Indians over treaty hunting and fishing rights. Act 31 charges the state of Wisconsin with creating a curriculum for grades 4-12 on American Indian treaty rights. It includes mandates for school programming to give students an understanding of different value systems, cultures, and human relations.
One outstanding resource is the website WisconsinFirstNations.org, a collection of resources that provides educators and pre-service teachers accurate and authentic educational materials for teaching about the American Indian Nations of Wisconsin.