The American Indian Studies Summer Institute

Indian educators and their allies counted a significant victory on August 8, 1989 when Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson signed into law Senate Bill 31, the 1989–1991 Biennial Budget Act (Wisconsin Act 31, 1989), which included provisions creating new statutes related to instruction in the “history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of the federally recognized tribes and bands in the state”. It was an important legislative victory because these new laws’ specificity was unprecedented in Wisconsin, where traditions of local control of education and broad authority of locally elected school boards were points of pride. ¹ This bill became known as 1989 Act 31 upon publication on August 20, 1989; and in Indian education circles, this remains the common name for the instructional requirements themselves. This chapter highlights the American Indian Studies Summer Institute (AISSI), an Act 31-focused professional development offering that embeds cultural responsiveness into the instructional design in order to expand opportunities for all students to receive accurate, authentic teachings about the eleven federally recognized tribes and bands in the state.