Some of the major milestones in the development of American Indian studies and student services at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ:
1960s — Ongoing discussions occur about the potential for an academic program that would better serve the region’s American Indian population.
1969 — The nation’s first collegiate Ojibwe language program and an Indian Studies degree are established.
1970 — The Indian Studies Center, also known as Anishinabe Family Center, opens in a former residence near campus as a gathering place for students and home to programs such as the Indian Community Action Project, serving tribes in four states.
1970 — American Indian students form Amerind Club, later renamed the Council of Indian Students. They organize Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ’s first American Indian Education and Awareness Week, featuring Lehman Brightman, director of Indian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, who took part in the 19-month Indian takeover of Alcatraz Island that began in November 1969.
1972 — The Council of Indian Students holds its first powwow.
1979 — The Oshkaabewis, reconfigured in 1990 as the Oshkaabewis Native Journal, begins publication as the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language.
2003 — The American Indian Resource Center, a replacement for the aging Indian Studies Center, opens with a celebration that includes a powwow, open house and ribbon cutting.
2015 — The Indian Studies program is renamed Indigenous Studies, offering not only a major but also a minor and emphasis.
May 2017 — Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ President Faith Hensrud and presidents of four Minnesota tribal colleges sign agreements to offer dual college-university enrollment to qualifying students.