About

Founded in 2021, the Indigeneity Lab at Marquette University partners undergraduate student researchers with faculty mentors on research projects engaging Native American history and culture, both locally and nationally. Since its founding, the Indigeneity Lab has employed thirty student researchers on ten different cross-disciplinary research projects.

The Indigeneity Lab is generously funded by the Joerres Family Fund for Experiential Learning.

Mission statement

At the Indigeneity Lab, we seek to forge good relations with Milwaukee’s Native communities and Wisconsin’s tribal nations through community-engaged, cross-disciplinary research by students, faculty and staff. We do so by:

• Connecting students with Milwaukee’s Native communities and Wisconsin’s tribal nations through experiental learning, community engagement, and cross-disciplinary research;
• Fostering a culture of belonging for both Native and non-Native students where all students may be empowered to share their gifts and talents to enrich the university community and “to go and set the world on fire;”
• Advancing and sharing back knowledge of Milwaukee’s Native communities and Wisconsin’s tribal nations in service of Catholic social justice and Indigenous sovereignty, both locally and globally; and,
• Supporting the university community to practice good relations with the land and water where the university is located and with the Native communities and tribal nations that call these spaces home.

(Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2025)