Photo courtesy of the University of North Dakota

A memory of Dr. S. Verna Fowler I will always cherish is one of her sitting across from me in the College of Menominee Nation’s (CMN’s) boardroom in Keshena, Wisconsin. It was 2018, and CMN’s founding president was holding a rough draft of the play script I was asked to write about Menominee restoration for the tribe’s school district. I had asked her, along with Silvia Wilber, Ada Deer, and countless others, for guidance, but at that moment it was Dr. Fowler who was instilling a lesson on the treaty era of the Menominee Nation. “We were not peacemakers. We were diplomats,” she explained. “We could be vicious when we needed to be, but we always did the best we could for our tribe.” Since her passing on August 12, 2023, the tributes to Sister Verna Fowler shared throughout the Menominee community prove that “doing the best she could for her tribe” was exactly how the beloved Menominee educator lived her life.

Born on July 1, 1942, in Keshena on her tribe’s enduring, ancestral homelands, Verna Fowler was the last surviving sibling of the 11 children born to Sanford Sr. and Louise (Pecore) Fowler. An enrolled member of the Menominee Indian tribe of Wisconsin, Verna was also a descendant of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Indians on her father’s side. From her mother, she inherited a zeal for social justice, as Louise took a leadership role in the tribe’s first restoration efforts in the early 1960s. From her father, she inherited her sense of humor, an example would be when Sandford would refer to his wife’s social meetings with tribal members as the makings of an “elderly activist group.” Yet from that group sprung the next generation of leaders known as the famed Menominee DRUMS movement. DRUMS (Determination of Rights and Unity for Menominee Stockholders) did what was once thought unimaginable—they both restored the Menominee Nation’s terminated federal trust status and revolutionized national Indian policy.

Pursuing an education was always important to Verna Fowler, but she was never singularly focused. She began her educational journey at Catholic grade school, eventually graduating from Shawano High School during a time before there was a separate, tribal school district. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1972, her Master of Education from the University of North Dakota (UND) in 1986, and her PhD in higher education from UND in 1992. Still, merely listing her degrees does not convey how Fowler also attended American University in Washington, DC while she was working alongside Ada Deer to win their tribe’s restoration of federal trust status. Additionally, the list doesn’t detail that, after serving for 16 years as a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity of the Catholic Church, she left that calling in 1980 to form the Sisters of New Genesis— “a community who supported themselves, lived independently, ministered, and served those they chose.”

At the behest of the Menominee people, Dr. Fowler agreed to be the president when the College of Menominee Nation was founded on March 4, 1993. In retrospect, this calling seems intuitive, as her doctoral dissertation was titled Leadership of American Indian Presidents of Accredited Tribally Chartered Community Colleges. In effect, she had literally written the book on tribal college leadership, and she was willing to put that knowledge into practice in leading her tribe’s higher education movement.

At that time, Fowler had aspirations of becoming a college professor, but she agreed to shelve those plans in order to serve her people. A reporter at the school’s launch quoted her stating, “I began to think of the Menominee people, and what this would mean to all of us.” CMN started in Fowler’s home with 49 students. Thirty years later it has expanded to a multibuilding main campus in Keshena with a satellite campus serving a predominantly Oneida community in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Further, the school has grown from teaching four basic college courses to offering nearly 25 programs, including many two-year and certificate programs as well as bachelor’s degree programs in business, public administration, sustainable agriculture, and early-childhood and middle-childhood education.

David Yarlott Jr., chair of AIHEC’s board of directors, congratulates Verna Fowler who was honored as the American Indian College Fund’s leader of the year in 2012.

While serving as CMN’s chief executive, Dr. Fowler donned other hats when called to do so. She served as the board president of the American Indian College Fund, vice president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, co-chair of the 1994 Land Grant Colleges USDA Leadership Committee, and she was appointed to the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Still, regardless of which heights she personally ascended, Fowler never lost sight of the culture that kept her grounded. In a 2018 interview with the Tribal College Journal, she noted the role that her spirituality played in guiding her leadership, stating, “I believe spiritual grounding is essential to the TCUs’ mission because it is central in every American Indian culture. Spiritual grounding is embedded in our cultures just as it was embedded in our ancestors’ daily lives—not just a weekend rite. It is the essence of being an American Indian.”

The tributes to Dr. Fowler’s life help to capture her impact on tribal education. In honoring her at CMN’s 30th anniversary celebration this past March, Menominee tribal chairwoman Gena Kakkak described Fowler as the “single driving force behind what is now the College of Menominee Nation.” She continued, noting that Fowler “has reshaped our system of education here on the Menominee reservation. Verna’s nationally renowned vision of nation building certainly has resonated here at home. She helped our tribe to grow, prosper, and improve our quality of life for all our members.” In May, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers shared a video conveying his admiration of Dr. Fowler. “As a governor, but also as a fellow educator, I am incredibly grateful for her service and her dedication. I know her legacy will continue to enrich our state for generations to come.”

Today, the Menominee Nation is internationally recognized for its forest management, but Fowler believed “The day is coming that the Menominee will be renowned for their educational initiative as they are for their sustainable forestry practice.” Yet, her goal for her people was more personal. In the eulogy at her funeral service, Jonathan Wilber conveyed that Fowler “had the power to identify the strengths of individuals and to get them to do something with those strengths.” Often her encouragement came in the form of a sincere compliment or a kind note marking a job well done. Sometimes it was more forceful— “Congratulations on earning your master’s degree. Now do something with it.”

Of course, “doing something” with a degree can mean walking down unexpected paths. For some it’s leading their tribe, for others it’s defending tribal sovereignty, serving their people, running a business, or creating art that inspires. For a chosen few, it’s the calling to lead a tribal college. To the next generation of tribal education leaders, Dr. Fowler offers the following advice: “Keep your focus on your respective tribal culture. By doing so, you are fostering the spiritual grounding of your students [and] truly educating them.”

Fowler’s obituary speaks to her human legacy. It notes that she is “survived by her special niece, Joan Delabreau; lifelong friend, Sister Jeanette Trost; her sister-in-law, Ava Fowler; and many other nieces and nephews.” To that list we must add that she is further survived by over 1,200 CMN graduates who have collectively earned 1,571 degrees to date. Although each story is a personal example of individual success, together CMN’s alumni have caused a ripple that has improved both the lives of the people CMN serves and the Menominee Nation Fowler loved. Perhaps the most exemplary of those is CMN’s current president, Christopher Caldwell. Earning his associate’s degree from CMN in sustainable development, Caldwell is doing what Dr. Fowler wished for all tribal college graduates—he has continued to further his education while working for his people. Caldwell is currently pursuing a PhD in environmental justice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison while also serving his own Menominee tribe as the leader of CMN.

When I asked him about Fowler’s legacy, Caldwell shared that “the more I have learned about Dr. Fowler from her own words and those of others, the more I see a legacy embedded at the heart of our institution, not because it was Verna inserting her own beliefs, but because she was embedding the values of the Menominee people into higher education. She understood our responsibility to our people, but also to others who come to learn with and from the Menominee. She lived through the understanding that ‘all my relations’ extended beyond the Menominee community.”

Dr. S. Verna Fowler led with the tenacity, conviction, compassion, and humor she inherited from her ancestors. She was a Menominee diplomat who did the best she could for her people. May her legacy forever live on in the actions of those of us who are called to serve within the Tribal College Movement.

Ryan Winn, MA, teaches liberal studies courses at the College of Menominee Nation.