First United Methodist Church Indigenous People’s Endowed Scholarship

The Methodist Church first held worship meetings in Madison during 1837. The first church building was in 1853 on the Capitol Square, where the current YWCA resides. This scholarship fund was established by the First United Methodist Church of Madison, Wisconsin as we adopt a Land Acknowledgement Statement (LAS) in 2022, recognizing that our church resides on Ho-Chunk Ancestral homeland. Our LAS states “As a step toward atonement, we commit to helping support the Ho-Chunk to educate others regarding their history and culture throughout the region.” Establishing the ‘First United Methodist Church of Madison Indigenous Peoples Scholarship’ is one step in fulfilling that pledge we are making.

The purpose of this scholarship is to help support indigenous people in post high school education. We intend to respect the right of indigenous people for sovereignty and will not direct or have oversight of these scholarship funds once they have been given to Madison Area Technical College. Our goal is to provide an endowed fund that is self-sustaining for use by Indigenous People to make a better life for themselves and their communities.