The Story of Act 31

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How Native History Came to Wisconsin Classrooms

JP Leary

Learn the origins of the groundbreaking law that ensures the history, culture, and sovereignty of Native nations in Wisconsin are taught to school children across the state—including the controversy that sparked it and its lasting impact.

352 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback: $28.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-832-4
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-833-1
Publication Date: 4/17/2018

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Description

Since its passage in 1989, a state law known as Act 31 requires that all students in Wisconsin learn about the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin's federally recognized tribes. The Story of Act 31 details the law's inception-tracing its origins to a court decision in 1983 that affirmed American Indian hunting and fishing treaty rights in Wisconsin, and to the violent public outcry that followed the court's decision. Author J P Leary paints a picture of controversy stemming from past policy decisions that denied generations of Wisconsin students the opportunity to learn about tribal history.

JP Leary tells the history of Wisconsin's Act 31, a state law requiring public schools to teach about the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin's federally recognized tribes. He explores the controversy surrounding the law and how it aimed to address past policies that denied generations of students the opportunity to learn about tribal history.

Author Bio

J P Leary is an associate professor of humanities, First Nations studies, and history at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is also a member of the graduate faculty in education and a faculty affiliate with the Professional Program in Education Center for First Nations Studies. He served as the American Indian Studies Consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction from 1996 until 2011. Leary earned a master's in American history from the University of Oklahoma and a PhD in educational policy studies from UW–Madison.

The Story of Act 31 makes a compelling argument for why Wisconsin mandates education about Native American history, treaty rights, and sovereignty. J P Leary’s powerful observations remind us that educational policy can be used to promote inclusiveness and social reform.

Patti Loew

Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, Northwestern University

"J P Leary has done the citizens of the state of Wisconsin a great service in authoring a brilliant review of the history of the seminal Ojibwe treaty rights conflict and the emergence of the institutional efforts to educate youth about the presence and history of the Native nations within the state. This careful and cautionary history of ‘official knowledge’ about American Indians deserves to be widely read and should be welcomed to the canon of texts read by educators."

—Larry Nesper
Author of “The Walleye War: The Struggle for Ojibwe Spearfishing and Treaty Rights”