PRIOR LAKE, Minn.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized Native American tribe, has announced a donation of $150,000 to support initiatives at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

Of that amount, $100,000 will support an endowment, and $50,000 will support the Research, Evaluation, and Dissemination (RED) Center that promotes and develops capacity in research for students, staff, and faculty. The focus of the RED Center is business, education, environmental science, and health, indigenous, and American Indian Studies.

"There is a need for us to have our own Indian people with abilities and skills to understand and conduct research," said Judith Gipp, RED Center Program Director. "The donation is going to provide us with the necessary tools to create those opportunities for our students and staff, to be better, to become that clearinghouse or the home base for indigenous research, to be that protective mechanism when it comes to research about us."

The $100,000 donation to support the Haskell Endowment Association will help establish the endowment as the permanent and primary fundraising entity for Haskell Indian Nations University and to purchase necessary equipment for fundraising initiatives and developing campaign materials. The SMSC grant will be matched with funds from the United States Department of Education. "Shakopee is the first tribe which has donated to the endowment," said Priscilla Hovland, Director of the Haskell Endowment Association. "We hope that other tribes will join the Shakopee to support Haskell."

For 125 years American Indian students have received an education at Haskell. Today, Haskell students represent federally recognized tribes from across the United States, with an average enrollment of over 1,000 students each semester.

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