Couple with Bismarck roots seeds endowment for UTTC students with $100,000 donation

As he pursued a career in the U.S. Army, Army National Guard and the aerospace industry, he reflected on his family’s vast expanse of corn, wheat, oat, barley and flax fields and the pens and pastures home to their hogs, dairy cows and cattle. He could now envision the original owners of that land.

So when his parents died and he inherited money, atop his military pension and benefits, he knew where he wanted to invest.

His love of anthropology and history led him to Dakota Goodhouse, a historian and faculty member at the United Tribes Technical College, and then to UTTC President Leander McDonald (Dakota/Sahnish/Hidatsa/Hunkpapa). They bonded over their shared experiences training at the Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Gordon army bases.

Leier and his wife, Patricia, wondered if they should donate to multiple tribes. McDonald said he’d be happy to support them in doing that, but that they might also consider an alternative way to benefit many Indian Nations: a gift to the United Tribes Technical College.

So Leier calculated the cost per acre of his family’s land when he was growing up. That $72,000 became the Leiers’ first donation to the UTTC last year. This year, they gave another $28,000, an amount that represents the early value of the land in Patricia Leier’s family. Leier doesn’t believe he and Patricia are “just giving a gift.” He said, “I’m giving back in thanksgiving for the sacrifice that the Natives made when their land was taken away. I was resourced off of that land, and so was she, to be able to get to where we did.”

At the UTTC Tribal Leaders Summit Conference Sept. 4 in Bismarck, McDonald announced that the money will endow a scholarship to support UTTC students.

McDonald said that in the spiritual and cultural ways of Native people, things happen for a reason.

“Us being able to meet Terry and Patty Leier — having that instant connection with them, to make friends, to make relatives,” McDonald said. “We really appreciate their gift to our students, and then having the infrastructure in place to allow that gift to last into perpetuity. We love them to death for being able to help us.”