our story
In the Fall of 2007 Dr. Cindy Killion, a mass communications professor at Winona State University decided to address the End of the Trail statue in the campus courtyard. She wanted to reframe the statue and turn a negative into a positive. Dr. Killion contacted her friend, Teri Halweg, who had done landscape design for other institutions. Together they created a design for an indigenous learning garden that was eventually dropped by Winona State University in the wake of the Recession. The project was abandoned and fell to the wayside.
Seven years later, Aaron Camacho, tribally enrolled with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, started her academic career at Winona State University. On her tours before registering, she was not shown the various depictions of Native Americans or the displays of various cultural artifacts on campus. While attending classes, working, and in traveling from building to building this Native American imagery could not avoided nor their effects. She attended a campus wide presentation on the End of the Trail statue on whether it was interpreted as art or artifact. The general consensus of the group discussion was that it should be removed. Aaron felt differently. She saw it as an opportunity for education and communicated this openly to the group. After attending the presentation, she went to the President’s office to ask how an educational approach to the statue could be developed. He directed her to a few professors, to guide her in her endeavor.
At the same time, Alexander Paulson was serving on an Inclusion & Diversity Ad-hoc Committee of Winona State University Student Senate (WSUSS) at the time. The committee had decided to focus on the Native American imagery around campus and decided to tackle the most visible: the End of the Trail statue. They invited a series of speakers, which included Dr. Cindy Killion who asked Aaron Camacho to accompany her. Dr. Killion also brought the early conceptual drawings of her reframing project from seven years previous. After that, Aaron Camacho was invited to join the committee and many committee members advocated for the learning garden concept to reframe the statue. This eventually resulted in a committee recommendation and a WSUSS letter of support for the creation of an indigenous learning garden.
At the closing of last semester, Aaron Camacho and Alexander Paulson decided remove the responsibility of the project from the committee and WSUSS and began the responsibility of advocating for the creation of the indigenous learning garden themselves. Thus the creation of the Indigenous Learning Garden Initiative. Aaron and Alexander worked over the summer, creating designs and contacting the former conceptual artist, Teri Halweg, to update the conceptual designs. Through their work, they rallied the support of the Faculty Senate and, ultimately, the President and his Cabinet. Through their various channels they found their most recent colleague, Regan Holm, a freshman and a descendant of White Earth. Together, Aaron, Regan, and Alexander, with the blessing of our administration, faculty, and student body, reach out to you for any guidance you are willing to offer and invite you to come to the opening ceremony when the this initiative comes to fruition.
Seven years later, Aaron Camacho, tribally enrolled with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, started her academic career at Winona State University. On her tours before registering, she was not shown the various depictions of Native Americans or the displays of various cultural artifacts on campus. While attending classes, working, and in traveling from building to building this Native American imagery could not avoided nor their effects. She attended a campus wide presentation on the End of the Trail statue on whether it was interpreted as art or artifact. The general consensus of the group discussion was that it should be removed. Aaron felt differently. She saw it as an opportunity for education and communicated this openly to the group. After attending the presentation, she went to the President’s office to ask how an educational approach to the statue could be developed. He directed her to a few professors, to guide her in her endeavor.
At the same time, Alexander Paulson was serving on an Inclusion & Diversity Ad-hoc Committee of Winona State University Student Senate (WSUSS) at the time. The committee had decided to focus on the Native American imagery around campus and decided to tackle the most visible: the End of the Trail statue. They invited a series of speakers, which included Dr. Cindy Killion who asked Aaron Camacho to accompany her. Dr. Killion also brought the early conceptual drawings of her reframing project from seven years previous. After that, Aaron Camacho was invited to join the committee and many committee members advocated for the learning garden concept to reframe the statue. This eventually resulted in a committee recommendation and a WSUSS letter of support for the creation of an indigenous learning garden.
At the closing of last semester, Aaron Camacho and Alexander Paulson decided remove the responsibility of the project from the committee and WSUSS and began the responsibility of advocating for the creation of the indigenous learning garden themselves. Thus the creation of the Indigenous Learning Garden Initiative. Aaron and Alexander worked over the summer, creating designs and contacting the former conceptual artist, Teri Halweg, to update the conceptual designs. Through their work, they rallied the support of the Faculty Senate and, ultimately, the President and his Cabinet. Through their various channels they found their most recent colleague, Regan Holm, a freshman and a descendant of White Earth. Together, Aaron, Regan, and Alexander, with the blessing of our administration, faculty, and student body, reach out to you for any guidance you are willing to offer and invite you to come to the opening ceremony when the this initiative comes to fruition.