History of the Institute
The Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education was founded at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) in 2010. It grew out of an endowed professorship in American Indian education established in 1999 through a gift from the Indian Community School to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Indian Community School, a private school located in Franklin, a suburb of Milwaukee, offers culturally relevant education to 278 American Indian students from 13 tribal nations in grades Kindergarten through eight.
Information about the extraordinary school building. The school was given the 2009 Design Excellence Award from the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education.
Leading up to the creation of the institute, a series of focus groups and interviews were held in 2007 to define how the teaching, research and service needs identified by American Indian community members and the Indian Community School might be met by UWM. The findings, as well as descriptions within the Electa Quinney Contribution Agreement, resulted in a 40-page report, “Strategic Plan and Vision for American Indian Programming at UW-Milwaukee.”
The Institute’s namesake, Electa Quinney, is recognized as Wisconsin’s first public school teacher. A member of the Stockbridge-Mohican tribe, she taught American Indian and white children in a one-room log school which opened in 1828.
Who is Electa Quinney?
The institute’s namesake, Electa Quinney, was Wisconsin’s first public school teacher and a member of Wisconsin’s Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. Trained in New York and Connecticut, Quinney came to Wisconsin 1827 following New York’s widespread American Indian removal. The year after her arrival, Quinney founded the state’s first school without an enrollment fee in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. She taught American Indian and white students, many of whom would not have been able to attend if school fees had been in place.
Electa Quinney married Daniel Adams, a Mohawk, who was a Methodist missionary to the Oneidas. Together, they moved from Wisconsin to Missouri where Adams was the pastor for a tribe of Senecas. Following his death, Quinney married a Cherokee newspaper editor and eventually returned to Stockbridge, Wisconsin, where she died in 1885.
The Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education, takes inspiration from Ms. Quinney. She saw education as a way of preparing young people to meet the challenges their communities faced. Today the challenges are different, but the need for educated people with the professional skills and knowledge to address the unique community needs and develop solutions is the same.
“Schools are important social institutions but they only came into existence in early Wisconsin once a critical mass of parents was willing to hire a teacher. On June 20, 1828, Electa Quinney became Wisconsin’s first public school teacher. Writer Karyn Saemann tells us about this well-educated woman from the Stockbridge Indian tribe.”