{{Short description|American educator, activist, and Catholic nun (1942–2023)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Verna Fowler | image = Verna Fowler.png | caption = | office = 1st President of the College of Menominee Nation | term_start = January 1993 | term_end = 2016 | successor = Diana Morris (interim) | birth_date = {{birth date|1942|07|01}} | birth_place = Keshena, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2023|08|12|1942|07|01}} | death_place = | education = Silver Lake College (B.S.)<br />University of North Dakota (M.Ed., Ph.D.) | citizenship = Menominee<br>United States | predecessor = ''Position established'' }}
'''Verna M. Fowler''' (July 1, 1942 – August 12, 2023) was an American Menominee educator, activist, and Catholic nun who served as the founding president of the College of Menominee Nation (CMN). An enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and a descendant of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, Fowler played a role in the Menominee Restoration movement during the 1970s. She led the College of Menominee Nation from its inception in 1993 until her retirement in 2016, overseeing its growth from a small startup to an accredited multi-campus institution.
== Early life and education == Verna Fowler was born on July 1, 1942, in Keshena, Wisconsin, located on the ancestral homelands of the Menominee people.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Winn |first=Ryan |date=2023-11-13 |title=Doing the Best for Her Tribe: Dr. S. Verna Fowler: Menominee Educator, Leader, and Diplomat |url=http://tribalcollegejournal.org/doing-the-best-for-her-tribe-dr-s-verna-fowler-menominee-educator-leader-and-diplomat/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241108195403/http://tribalcollegejournal.org/doing-the-best-for-her-tribe-dr-s-verna-fowler-menominee-educator-leader-and-diplomat/ |archive-date=2024-11-08 |access-date=2025-12-26 |work=Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education |language=en-US}}</ref> She was the last surviving sibling of the 11 children born to Sanford Sr. and Louise (Pecore) Fowler.<ref name=":0" /> On her father's side, she was a descendant of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Indians.<ref name=":0" />
Fowler was in the fifth grade in 1953 when the federal policy of termination began, a process that ended federal recognition of the tribe and resulted in economic hardship for the community.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Ulrich |first=Roberta |title=Menominees: Ambush |date=2010 |work=American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006 |pages=21–44 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-3364-5 |jstor=jj.32942786.7}}</ref> She later recalled that during the post-termination era, the community became known as "Wisconsin's pocket of poverty."<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Boyer |first=Paul D. |date=Fall 2004 |title=Sovereignty: The rhetoric v. the reality |journal=Tribal College Journal |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=10 |via=ProQuest}}</ref> Throughout her grade school and high school years, she accompanied her parents to meetings of the General Council.<ref name=":1" /> Fowler noted that while the specific term "sovereignty" was not frequently used during her youth, tribal leaders consistently discussed treaties and the tribe's ability to govern itself.<ref name=":2" />
She began her education at a Catholic grade school and graduated from Shawano High School.<ref name=":0" /> Early in her life, Fowler entered a religious order, serving for 16 years as a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Zarling |first=Patti |date=July 25, 2016 |title=Menominee college president relishes school's success |url=https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/education/2016/07/25/college-menominee-tribe-indians-wisconsin-verna-fowler-retirement/87030872/ |access-date=2025-12-26 |website=Green Bay Press-Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref> She earned a B.S. in 1972 from Silver Lake College.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Lorentz |first=Jackie |date=2015 |title=American Indian Leaders in Higher Education: S. Verna Fowler |url=https://commons.und.edu/uac-all/3391/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423104235/https://commons.und.edu/uac-all/3391/ |archive-date=2023-04-23 |access-date=2025-12-26 |work=UND Scholarly Commons |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |date=Winter 2016 |title=Verna Fowler, CMN's Founder, Retires After 24-Year Tenure |journal=Journal of American Indian Higher Education |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=12 |via=ProQuest}}</ref>
== Career and activism == Fowler began her career in education in 1964, working as a teacher and administrator at various levels ranging from elementary to adult education.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Senior Management Biographical Summaries |url=https://www2.ntia.doc.gov/files/grantees/collegeofmenomineenation_pcc_applications_attachments_part3_redacted.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421174934/https://www2.ntia.doc.gov/files/grantees/collegeofmenomineenation_pcc_applications_attachments_part3_redacted.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-21 |access-date=2025-12-26 |website=National Telecommunications and Information Administration}}</ref> Inspired by her mother, Louise Fowler, who held a leadership role in early restoration efforts, Verna developed an interest for social justice.<ref name=":0" />
During the 1970s, while attending American University, Fowler became a leader in the movement to restore federal sovereignty to the Menominee people.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Vaisvilas |first=Frank |date=August 16, 2023 |title=Menominee Nation mourning loss of tribal education leader Verna Fowler |url=https://eu.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2023/08/16/verna-fowler-college-of-menominee-nation-founder-dies/70598670007/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250408173150/https://eu.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2023/08/16/verna-fowler-college-of-menominee-nation-founder-dies/70598670007/ |archive-date=2025-04-08 |access-date=2025-12-26 |website=Green Bay Press-Gazette |language=en}}</ref> She worked as an assistant to activist Ada Deer in both Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin, helping to achieve the restoration of the Menominee Nation in 1973.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /> As a young woman involved in the restoration movement, she recounted witnessing a tribal member destroy a Legend Lake land sales billboard.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dockry |first1=Michael |last2=Whyte |first2=Kyle |author-link2=Kyle Powys Whyte |date=2021 |title=Improving on Nature: The Legend Lake Development, Menominee Resistance, and the Ecological Dynamics of Settler Colonialism |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=95–120 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2021.0008 |issn=0095-182X |jstor=27010393}}</ref> Following restoration, she held positions with the Menominee Restoration Committee, including superintendent of Education and Director of the Credit and Finance Department.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> During sabbaticals, she also served as executive director for the Menominee Indian Tribe.<ref name=":6" />
In 1980, Fowler left the Franciscan order to become one of the five founders of the Sisters of New Genesis within the Green Bay diocese.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6" /> She continued her education at the University of North Dakota, earning a M.Ed. in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration in 1992.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> Her doctoral dissertation was titled ''Leadership of American Indian Presidents of Accredited Tribally Chartered Community Colleges''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite thesis |last=Fowler |first=Verna M. |title=Leadership of American Indian Presidents of Accredited Tribally Chartered Community Colleges |date=1992 |degree=Ph.D. |oclc=29304963}}</ref> Donald K. Lemon was her doctoral advisor.<ref name=":8" /> She also pursued further studies at the Catholic University of America and the University of San Francisco.<ref name=":5" />
=== President of College of Menominee Nation === In 1992, the Menominee Indian Tribe hired Fowler to establish a tribal college.<ref name=":5" /> She became the founding president of the College of Menominee Nation (CMN), which opened in January 1993.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Fowler set up administrative services in her home's basement and borrowed classroom space from a public high school.<ref name=":3" /> The initial cohort consisted of approximately 42 to 49 students.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" />
Fowler built the institution from the ground up, establishing it as one of two tribal colleges in Wisconsin.<ref name=":3" /> Under her leadership, the college adopted the messages "Nation building – one student at a time" and "Why wait?".<ref name=":5" /> Fowler argued that simply copying state and federal government models erodes tribal sovereignty. She believed tribes should instead develop laws tailored to their own priorities.<ref name=":2" /> She expressed a hope that the Menominee people would eventually be as well-known for their education as they were for their forest management.<ref name=":7" /> Over the following decades, CMN expanded to a multi-building main campus in Keshena and a satellite campus in Green Bay serving the Oneida community.<ref name=":0" />
During her presidency, Fowler was appointed by U.S. president Bill Clinton to the President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities in 1999 and was reappointed to the board by U.S. president George W. Bush in 2006.<ref name=":6" /> She served as co-chair of the 1994 Land Grant Colleges USDA Leadership Committee, president of the American Indian College Fund Board, vice president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Higher Learning Commission.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" />
In 2010, she was a recipient of the U.S. Agency for International Development's George Washington Carver Agricultural Excellence Award for her work connecting Indigenous people in the United States and Latin America through the Center for First Americans Forestlands.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |date=Spring 2011 |title=People in the News |journal=Tribal College Journal |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=70 |issn=1052-5505 |via=Academic Search Complete}}</ref> That same year, she received the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of North Dakota.<ref name=":5" /> In 2011, she was elected president of the NEW Education Resource Alliance (NEW ERA) board.<ref name=":3" /> The American Indian College Fund honored her as Leader of the Year in 2012.<ref name=":0" /> She also received honorary doctorates from two University of Wisconsin institutions.<ref name=":5" />
== Retirement and death == Fowler retired as president of the College of Menominee Nation in the summer of 2016.<ref name=":3" /> She was succeeded by interim president Diana Morris.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kiefer |first=Irene |date=2018-04-24 |title=Paul Trebian Named President at CMN |url=https://tribalcollegejournal.org/paul-trebian-named-president-at-cmn/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820002538/https://tribalcollegejournal.org/paul-trebian-named-president-at-cmn/ |archive-date=2020-08-20 |access-date=2025-12-26 |work=Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education |language=en-US}}</ref> Fowler was a co-owner of the Wolf River Trading Post.<ref name=":6" />
Fowler died on August 12, 2023, at the age of 81.<ref name=":7" /> A funeral mass was held on August 17, 2023, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Neopit, Wisconsin.<ref name=":7" /> She was survived by her niece Joan Delabreau, her lifelong friend Sister Jeanette Trost, her sister-in-law Ava Fowler.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Verna}}
Category:1942 births Category:2023 deaths Category:People from Keshena, Wisconsin Category:Holy Family College (Wisconsin) alumni Category:University of North Dakota alumni Category:College of Menominee Nation faculty Category:20th-century Native American women Category:21st-century Native American women Category:20th-century American women academics Category:21st-century American women academics Category:Native American women academics Category:American women academic administrators Category:Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Category:Women heads of universities and colleges Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Category:21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns Category:Catholics from Wisconsin Category:Activists from Wisconsin Category:Native American women activists Category:Activists for Native American rights Category:Menominee people Category:Franciscan nuns