Within this issue, TCJ’s writers and contributors describe the ripple effect of federal funding and share best practices for procuring grant funding, building new programs, and working collaboratively with federal agencies.
Technology has changed the ways in which we work and live, even how we communicate with one another. The articles in this issue reinforce the importance of technology as a tool to preserve, restore, and protect culture. Students at tribal colleges nationwide are engaged in scientific research that benefits their homelands; restores their Native languages; and connects them in new ways with their elders, families, and tribal communities.
Within this issue of TCJ, writers share stories of how various tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are addressing climate change with research, sustainability efforts, environmental health and science classes, and renewable energy. While most TCUs are involved in some way, this issue covers work by Haskell Indian Nations University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, Sitting Bull College, Salish Kootenai College, Aaniiih Nakoda College, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Tohono O’odham Community College, White Earth Tribal and Community College, and Nebraska Indian Community College.
Writing about racism within this issue of Tribal College Journal, all of our writers share intensely personal stories. They do so not to give power to the pain and ugliness of racism but rather to take brave steps toward healing.
Recruitment and retention of Native students is a daunting topic that tribal colleges and universities are approaching with numerous strategies including drawing on tradition, culture, and language, using hands-on engagement and personalizing support. The summer issue of Tribal College Journal features a handful of these efforts.
In this issue of Tribal College Journal, writers share stories of the foods that can heal and sustain the body, mind, and soul. They also show how many tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are helping Native communities overcome challenges including obesity, diabetes, and drug or alcohol addiction while also restoring local food systems and nurturing local economies.
This issue of Tribal College Journal focuses on travel and how tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) tackle these barriers through travel, both by welcoming visitors and sending emissaries abroad. Non-Indian Jerry Worley, Ed.D, says he and his Swedish photographer friend, Anders Andersson, were welcomed when they traveled to Montana to visit tribal colleges. A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he traveled at his own expense because, he says, “To really see what tribal colleges are like – to hear their voice – one must visit them.”
For many of us, the phrase “American Indian activist” conjures up images of Red Power and the American Indian Movement, of activists marching in the streets, occupying Bureau of Indian Affairs buildings and Alcatraz, and pouring blood on the statue of Columbus. But what does it mean to be an activist in the context of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs)? This issue of TCJ introduces just a few of the many people who cannot tolerate the status quo and act to change it.
Minimizing Native American culture and heritage is a continuing problem at many mainstream higher education institutions. Thankfully, this is not the case at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). These unique colleges provide vibrant faculty, enriching programs, and are home to both historic and sacred items such as Joe Medicine Crow’s archives and Sitting Bull’s headdress. TCUs provide the best breeding grounds for authentic cultural studies because they are tied to the places, communities, and people that they serve.
As many tribal college and university (TCU) faculty realize, being innovative and using the resources that you find can be a wonderful and inexpensive way to keep classrooms full of fresh ideas that inspire students and encourage them to examine their ideals and stereotypes. According to an American Indian Higher Education Consortium faculty study, hundreds of teachers are drawn to TCUs to “make a difference in the lives of others” and to “teach American Indian students.”
