“We can evaluate our educational programs, not based on short-term measures like test scores, but upon the actions of our alumni.”
JP Leary, author of The Story of Act 31: How Native History Came to Wisconsin Classrooms
History and contents
Act 31 is a critical piece of Wisconsin legislation requiring instruction on the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s First Nations communities in all public schools. Act 31 is not its own bill, but rather it consists of multiple statutes originally included in the 1989-1991 Wisconsin state budget bill. The goal is to provide Wisconsin students with understanding of the “self-governing authority of American Indian Nations and people of Wisconsin, as well as their unique legal status in relation to the federal, state, and local governments.”1
In the 1980s and 90s, Native communities in Wisconsin faced violent racism, one of the most famous examples being the “Walleye Wars.” A series of court rulings affirming the rights of the Ojibwe people to use land ceded to the United States in the treaties of 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 prompted recreational fisherman to commit acts of overt racism against Native people.2 At the root of this problem existed a lack of awareness of treaty history on the part of Wisconsin’s non-native fishermen, and intervention in Wisconsin’s public schools was an important long-term solution.
Act 31 requires that this specified instruction occurs twice in elementary school and once in high school. As with any other content area, students are expected to build on the skills they learned in previous classes, with the ultimate goal being the ability to analyze this history and apply it to the modern day. A common question related to the implementation of Act 31 and K-12 instruction involves the materials utilized in the classroom. It is important that the content students are exposed to with the intent of expelling stereotypes and misconceptions about Indigenous people is accurate and authentic. Primary sources that highlight Indigenous voices are important resources for students to use, but a common criticism of Act 31 is that it does not provide schools or educators with the resources to find these authentic sources. Many teachers in the two decades following Act 31 reported using textbooks or information from the internet to teach their students, which are not usually written or created by Indigenous people.3 Another important aspect of Act 31 is its requirement for students in teacher prep programs to receive instruction that prepares them to comply with Act 31 in the classroom. The problem that has arisen, however, is that many prep programs are simply alerting future educators of the existence of Act 31, rather than providing the content knowledge and understanding that make authentic teaching of Indigenous culture and history possible.
Currently, Act 31 only applies to public schools, but there have been efforts in the past to apply its requirements to non-traditional public schools. In 2019, the Wisconsin State Legislature introduced an assembly bill (AB108), which outlined an extension of Act 31 to apply to both independent charter schools and private schools participating in publicly funded school choice programs.4 This particular initiative was not successful.
Act 31 at Marquette
“Teacher training should not end upon completion of a degree.”
Heather Ann Moody, author of “Wisconsin Act 31 Compliance: Reflecting on Two Decades of American Indian Content in the Classroom”
Marquette University’s College of Education recently updated its requirements for teacher candidates thanks to the efforts of Alexis Garcia (Ed ‘19). In 2021, the College rolled out a newly structured four-year plan for its education majors, including either a Native American history or Native American literature course as well as instruction on compliance with Act 31 integrated into the Education curriculum. This new requirement of a separate course in specific Indigenous studies provides Marquette’s future teachers with not just an understanding of how to effectively teach Native American history, culture, and tribal sovereignty, but also a deeper understanding of the context and substance of the content they are using in their own classroom instruction. During their time at Marquette, teacher candidates in both the Elementary and Secondary majors read about and discuss productive ways to approach these important topics in the classroom, like Indigenous representation in children’s literature for example, and they all practice planning a series of lessons on Native American history and culture based on Act 31’s requirements. Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch, history professor at Marquette emphasizes the importance of these changes to curriculum for Marquette-educated teachers. “Teachers…have a responsibility to these Indigenous histories and nations who are every bit as much ‘American’ as we are,” he says.5
- “State Statutes for American Indian Studies (Wisconsin Act 31),” Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, accessed June 14, 2025, https://dpi.wi.gov/amind/state-statues. ↩︎
- Milwaukee Public Museum. “Spearfishing Controversy.” Accessed June 14, 2025. https://www.mpm.edu/educators/wirp/nations/ojibwe/spearfishing-controversy. ↩︎
- Moody, Heather Ann, “Wisconsin Act 31 Compliance: Reflecting on Two Decades of American Indian Content in the Classroom,” Journal of American Indian Education 58, no. 3 (2019): 130–46. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.58.3.0130. ↩︎
- Act to require private schools participating in a parental choice program and independent charter schools to provide instruction in American Indian history, culture, and tribal sovereignty, A.B. 108, Wisconsin State Legislature. (2019). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2019/related/proposals/ab108. ↩︎
- Sarah Koziol, “A Responsibility to Teach Untold Histories,” Marquette Today, August 10, 2021, https://stories.marquette.edu/a-responsibility-to-teach-untold-histories-9c8d6e490e8b. ↩︎