2024-2025 Marena Fox Baker

published 8/28/2025

Marena is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and a sophomore at UW-Madison majoring in Educational Policy Studies with a certificate in American Indian and Indigenous Studies. She is a second year PEOPLE Scholar involved in the NDGNS UW program, Tribal Libraries Archives and Museums (TLAM), and Wunk Sheek. In her free time she enjoys reading a good book, beading, and being outside!

About this Project

As a 2024-2025 Student Historian, I chose the topic of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Native student activism at UW-Madison. I first had questions about Native presence on campus throughout time. I was interested in the history of Wunk Sheek, histories of removal of Native people on campus, and general Native student activism. I explored all of these options by looking in the UW-Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society, and newspaper archives. I found that a formation of student groups and Native student activity was happening a long the same time of the American Indian Movement and I wondered how these two experiences were related. Months of pre-research led me to the research question: How does the American Indian Movement relate to Native student activism and advocacy at UW-Madison during the 1970s? From here I would explore AIM history, AIM at a local state level, and AIM activity on campus. I knew that with so little Native history recorded in the archives I would need to do an oral history project.

Early Research

This is the flyer that initially peaked my interest in looking at AIM activity on campus.

The Wounded Knee flyer presented Clyde Bellecourt, one of the founding members of AIM. Recordings of the event are available at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

I am also linking my blog post I wrote in December that documents my thoughts and early research discoveries.

Oral Histories

I conducted two oral history interviews with former Native students at UW-Madison in the 1970s. These were with Janice Rice and George Swamp.

Janice Rice

“Janice Beaudin Rice.” University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, 12 January 1988, https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FXBJIMGQFUW478H. Accessed 20 August 2025.

In her January and February 2025 interviews, Ho-Chunk Nation member and retired librarian at UW-Madison, Janice Rice, discusses her involvement and knowledge of the American Indian Movement (AIM) on campus during the 1970s. Rice shares her experiences as a Native student during the American Indian Movement at UW-Milwaukee in the early 1970s and her transition to UW-Madison for graduate studies in the late 1970s. Rice connects how AIM impacted education opportunities on the UW-Madison campus as a student, and shares how AIM came up in her career as a librarian at UW-Madison.

This oral history is still being processed and will be published soon.

George Swamp

“George Swamp at ‘Remember Wounded Knee’ press conference.” University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, ca. 1973, https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/GQWY6WBLM6R4O8Z Accessed 20 August 2025.

In his April 2025 interview, Oneida Nation member and retired social worker, George Swamp recounts his own journey through education including his time at UW-Madison. Swamp shares stories from his undergraduate years at UW-Oshkosh in 1968, the beginning of the Vietnam War, his experience in the military, and finally stories from Native student community at UW-Madison during the mid 1970s.

This oral history is still being processed and will be published soon.

Conclusions

I learned that Native UW-Madison students were connected to AIM and the many forms of protest. However, there was not much direct activity in the Madison area. Milwaukee and northern Wisconsin were the targeted areas. Even with less activity in Madison, Native students could feel the impacts of AIM on campus and the movement inspired Native students to take action and advocate for issues that mattered to them. These included advocating for the American Indian & Indigenous Studies program, creating a student group, and making a physical space.