Dan Hawk
Mathematics and Nutrition major
College of Menominee Nation

Born and raised on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, Dan says he "grew up poor." He had a difficult time in high school, and entered the Army National Guard. Following that, Dan enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served for eight years on fast attack submarines in the Atlantic. He says that experience taught him that he can do anything if he puts his mind to it, he says, something that he shares with his classmates.

After his discharge, Dan enrolled in the College of Menominee Nation. "Good things come in small (tribal college) packages," he says. We can start the path of education at our tribal doorstep and then take our values and beliefs to other places where others can see who we really are. In the case of the Menominee, they can take sustainable development that their elders taught them, and teach the rest of the world what their elders knew," he says.

Dan heads has dedicated his life to researching ways to bring ancient knowledge to the modern world. He worked with several classmates to build the Golden Eagle, an award-winning wooden rocket that he and his classmates made from materials from his reservation's sustainable forest. Although Golden Eagle was neither slick nor expensive, it outperformed other rockets made by students at mainstream institutions in a national competition. Dan is also conducting experiments for NASA to grow radishes and other foodstuffs on the moon and Mars, using ancient soil techniques developed by American Indians thousands of years ago. Dan says if the experiment works, American Indians will be seeding space!