Volume XII Spring 2001 Issue #3
On Campus
Bison return to Cankdeska Cikana College
By Melinda Martin
Thanks to the Small Farmer Outreach Training and Technical Assistance Project, bison are making their resurgence on the Spirit Lake Nation Indian Reservation in North Dakota. In November, 1999, management of the bison herd was handed over to Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC).
Vast herds of bison once covered the Great Plains. Early explorers report herds numbering from 10,000 to 100,000 in one area. The roaring of the bulls sounded like the continuous roll of a hundred drums and could be heard for miles. Natural losses to blizzards, drowning, drought, and wolves were great, but trappers, hunters, and settlers were the greatest cause of extermination. At one time the bison was the sole source of life to the Indians of the Great Plains, supplying meat, shelter, entertainment, and spiritual strength. By the mid-1800s the number of bison had shrunk to almost extinction. Several individuals had the foresight to take action to keep the bison population from being wiped from existence. Today there are over 250,000 bison in North America and approximately 23,000 in North Dakota, including those on reservations in the state.
With the assistance of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative based out of Rapid City, S.D., the tribal college has established detailed management and marketing plans. The marketing plan includes harvesting all bulls two years old and older that will not be used as breeding stock. This will not only produce a significant amount of meat but also a substantial supply of bison by-products. All by-products will be offered to artisans on the Spirit Lake Nation.
Once the herd is self sufficient, local ranchers may be able to acquire bison calves to start their own herds. Participants in the program would be required to meet certain requirements, including taking animal science classes at CCCC, to make sure they have the knowledge and skills to raise bison. For more information contact Melinda Martin at Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Fort Totten, N.D., at 701/ 766-1385 or e-mail at martlea@hoopster.little-hoop.cc.nd.us>.
Prosperity Games to bridge digital divide
For American Indians, the "digital divide" is a canyon. Indians have poverty rates three times higher than the national average, and half of all Indian reservation homes do not even have a telephone. At Dull Knife Memorial College in Montana, two computers provide the only Internet access for 240 students. Less than half of the 33 tribal colleges have access to a T-1 line at a time when most universities and researchers require access to the much faster T-3 lines.
It doesn't have to be that way, according to participants in a recent "Prosperity Game" in the Silicon Valley in October 2000. More than 100 "stake holders" gathered in November to play a game with very high stakes - transformation of tribal college communities and ultimately of communities throughout Indian Country. Judging from the goals they produced at their meeting, they believe this transformation can take place by providing the appropriate resources, partnerships, infrastructure, and regulatory atmosphere.
These stakeholders included visionaries but visionaries grounded in first hand knowledge of how difficult the transformation could be. The infrastructure group, for example, envisioned $20 billion to hook up Indian Country. Participants included presidents of tribal colleges and other minority and mainstream universities, as well as high ranking executives of firms such as IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Lucent Technologies, Tachyon Inc. The players were diverse, including representatives of the federal government, nonprofit sector, states and local governments, tribes, Maori colleges in New Zealand, and the public.
At Palo Alto, participants were divided into 11 stakeholder teams that worked together, simulating a 10-year time span for developing tribal college technology. The games were first developed by the Sandia National Laboratory to resolve national policy issues, according to Carrie Billy, executive director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities. They are modeled after war games. A design team including representatives of the tribal colleges and their organizations as well as Domenici Littlejohn, Inc. adapted the games.
In November, participants synthesized the groups' recommendations into the first draft of a National Framework, which they expected to present to the tribal college presidents in February 2001. The framework will serve as a major resource for policy makers, the private sector, and for individual tribal colleges' own technology plans.
The games were designed to pool expert knowledge from different sectors of society and to form new relationships for the tribal colleges, according to Thomas Davis of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium technology committee. Although the National Framework will take years to fully implement, it has already resulted in new partners for the tribal colleges. Within a month after the event, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College President Jack Briggs said he had already received emails and inquiries from people he met there.
The participants shared an interest in bridging the digital divide on reservations for many altruistic and practical reasons. Indian people on reservations are potential customers of computers and software, and they also represent one of the nation's last untapped work forces. Billy of WHITCU said the government is looking for ways to make investment on reservations attractive to high-tech companies. "The situation with Native Americans is America's dirtiest little secret," said Lynn Cutler, former President Clinton's adviser on Indian affairs, according to USA Today.
The Prosperity Games were sponsored by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the American Indian College Fund, and the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities. For more information about "Circle of Prosperity: Tribal Colleges, Tradition, and Technology," see the website
SKC hosts international distance ed meeting
Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana hosted the first International Indigenous Peoples Distance Education Conference last November. Indigenous People came from as far away as Australia and Canada to participate. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided a grant for the conference at Salish Kootenai College, where 590 students over the past three years have successfully completed more than 59 upper division Internet courses. The objectives for the gathering were to embrace learning from ancient wisdom, share experiences and learning styles, understand how education in cyberspace can preserve tribal culture, and develop a networking forum with indigenous professionals from around the globe.
The conference illustrated dramatic changes in the way Native people around the world access secondary education. In his keynote, Dr. Joseph McDonald, president of Salish Kootenai College, addressed the concept of cultural infusion in Internet courses at Salish Kootenai College. A paper written by Boni Robertson, Director, GUMARRI Centre, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia highlighted the need for culturally focused, quality, international distance education for Native peoples. Keynote speaker Julie Cajune, tribal education coordinator for the Ronan School District, Ronan, Mont., spoke about the need for multi-cultural education.
Additional sessions focused on indigenous learning styles for success in cyberspace, research issues with indigenous peoples, student needs, social issues, and cyber education for the isolated and disabled. The conference also included demonstrations of drumming, dancing, and singing. Lori Colomeda, Ph.D., who helped organize the conference, recently won the award from the Science and Religion Course Program for courses blending science and religion. Her class, Environmental Science Meaning in Indigenous Religion, is being taught on the Internet through the tribal college.
BIA puts $10 million into new SIPI building
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has earmarked $10 million in this year's federal budget to construct a new Advanced Technical Education Applications Building (ATE) at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), according to the Department of Interior's Assistant-Secretary of Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover.
Gover attended the SIPI student assembly in October where he announced that BIA's Facilities Management and Construction Center had decided to build the science building on the 165-acre campus in Albuquerque, N.M.
When it is completed in September 2002, the 59,000 square-foot building will accommodate college science instruction and labs for such courses as chemistry, biology, and physics. Robotics, semiconductor and environmental labs; various computer technology labs, and a distance learning center are planned for the facility, which will also include a 500-seat auditorium. The BIA has contracted with Holleyman & Associates of Oklahoma City to design the building.
Earlier this year, SIPI received a 10-year accreditation as a National Indian Community College. However the accrediting agency, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, cited the need for a new science building. Currently, SIPI science labs are taught in two portable buildings.
Recalling a decade of efforts to get funding, SIPI President Dr. Carolyn Elgin cited "a partnership of federal, state, tribal, industrial and foundation supporters." SIPI has agreements with local secondary schools, regional higher educational institutions (University of New Mexico, New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico State University), Sandia National Lab, and other science centers that help the college to offer a math, science, engineering, and technology program. Many courses transfer to four-year institutions while others prepare students to enter the 21st century workforce.
As a college operated by the BIA, SIPI is an associate member of American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). It was designated a land grant institution in 1994. SIPI is tuition-exempt to eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives and also provides students with room, board, and textbooks. The SIPI student body is 100 percent Native American representing over 100 tribes from across the country.
Leech Lake develops institution
Leech Lake Tribal College in Minnesota received its first Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education last October. The tribal college will use the five-year, $1.9 million grant to develop the information technology infrastructure of the college. This project will assist Leech Lake Tribal College in improving record keeping in student services and purchasing financial accounting software. At several reservation sites, students and other community members soon will be able to communicate with faculty and staff of the college regarding coursework, registration, and financial aid more regularly and more efficiently than in the past. The Title III grant will also help develop the virtual library and distance education services, which were begun with assistance from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service.
Prior to these grants, the college had no Internet connectivity, and faculty had no regular access to computers. Today the college boasts a computer lab for students, a writing laboratory with computer workstations, computers in every faculty office, and T-1 Internet access.
The college took another important step to develop a stronger institution last year. The Leech Lake Tribal Council adopted a new charter for the college, which establishes an independently elected seven-member board of Leech Lake Band members to govern the college. The tribal council has served as the college's board of trustees since the band established the college in 1990. John Morrow, president of Leech Lake Tribal College since the fall of 1999, said that with the new charter and new governing board, the tribal council began "a new era of tribal self-determination."
The North Central Association, Commission on Higher Education, considers the independence of a college's governing board as a central issue in accreditation decisions. Consequently, the new charter and board will help the college become fully accredited. At present, Leech Lake Tribal College's accreditation is for adult and vocational programs through the NCA, Commission on Schools. The college's mission is to "provide all persons a quality education grounded in the spirituality, history, and culture of the Anishinaabeg."
RSI grants to improve math, science
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made 13 new awards totaling some $13 million to improve science, mathematics, and technology education in K-12 schools on tribal reservations in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Washington.
The Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) grants incorporate standards-based instructional practice and encourage partnerships. This RSI effort is NSF's response to the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities-an effort to promote access to high quality educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged students while developing innovative linkages among the tribal colleges, elementary, and secondary schools.
"Enhancing math and science instruction will help more young Native American men and women find a brighter future in an increasingly technological society," says Rita Colwell, NSF director. "We believe local, individual projects such as these are the best way to address the needs of specific geographic areas and provide direct support," adds Costello Brown, interim director for NSF's Division of Educational System Reform.
Individual award amounts will average $1.2 million each for 10 implementation awards over a five-year period and $100,000 each for four developmental awards over a one year period. The awards began during the 2000-2001 academic year. Recipients are Blackfeet Community College, Montana; Candeska Cikana Community College, North Dakota; Fort Belknap Community College, Montana; Fort Berthold Community College, North Dakota; Fort Peck Community College, Montana; Sisseton-Wahpeton Community College, South Dakota; Turtle Mountain Community College, North Dakota; Little Big Horn College, Montana; Northwest Indian College, Washington; Salish Kootenai College, Montana; United Tribes Technical College, North Dakota; Dull Knife Memorial College, Montana; and the Fremont School District, serving the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
To reform mathematics, science, and technology education, RSI targets rural areas in economically disadvantaged regions of the nation that lack support and resources. Projects aim at sustainable, adaptable, and systemic improvements in schools and colleges. For more information, see: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/ESR/rsi.asp
SWCC dean selected for fellowship
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Sisseton Wahpeton Community College Academic Dean Harvey DuMarce last summer for a six week fellowship on the founding of the Jamestown settlement, "Text of the Imagination." DuMarce and the other fellows conducted research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, visited Jamestown, and stayed at George Washington University. "It was a real learning experience for me and for my classmates," he said. DuMarce is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribe, and so his classmates met a real, modern Indian, many of them for the first time. "We made lasting friendships," he said.
DuMarce read Captain John Smith's original journals and a John Rolfe's letter, discovering that the Pocahontas story is much more complex than that portrayed in the popular media and history books. While John Rolfe loved her, he had doubts about marrying a "barbarian" and about her "heathen ways" since she was not a Christian. DuMarce is using his research for the American and Native American literature courses he teaches at the tribal college in northeast South Dakota. On his days off, he went to the Library of Congress and conducted research on the letters of Dr. Charles A. Eastman on microfilm."
The fellowship competition was based on a three-page personal statement and resume. The other 16 fellows were all professors at larger universities. An enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, DuMarce has worked at the tribal college since August 1996. He received his MA from the University of Iowa in May of that year, and he was selected as a NEH fellow for the Native American Literature seminar at the Newberry Library in June 1996.
Diné College stacks logs for culture center at Tuba City
On November 29, Diné College conducted a "log-raising" ceremony at the Tuba City, Ariz., campus. The Diné College Board of Regents, representatives of the Navajo Nation, members of the Tuba City Steering Committee, students, faculty members, and other project sponsors gathered on site to stack logs and hammer nails.
The 2,400-square foot log hogan is the first building on Tuba City's new campus, which is located over 100 miles west of the main college campus at Tsaile. It is the 19th Cultural Learning Center to go up at tribal colleges nationwide as part of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) initiative to create repositories for art and culture at each member institution. The center will serve as temporary classroom, office, and computer lab until construction begins on the new campus facilities in the spring. After those facilities are completed, the center will be used as a cultural center for Navajo and Hopi art and artifacts and as a visiting center for the community.
Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet, president of Diné College, sent a message thanking all the supporters and quoting her grandfather, Chief Manuelito, who said, "Education is the ladder to success for my people, tell my grandchildren to climb the ladder." Last summer, Manuelito-Kerkvliet became the first woman president in the 32-year history of the nation's first tribal college. She worked in the Oregon University System since 1988 and was completing her doctorate when the tribal college hired her. She holds a B.S. degree in social work and a M.S. degree in counselor education from the University of Wyoming.
The cultural learning centers partnership involves the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the National Association of Home Builders' Council, whose members have donated log material packages to 29 colleges; and the American Indian College Fund. Air-Lock Log Homes of Las Vegas, N.M., donated this octagonal structure, the fourth of four cultural centers the company has donated to tribal colleges nationwide. Anne Edinger of the AIHEC Cultural Learning Centers staff estimates that by December 2000, they had received over $10 million in material (log home companies and other building supply companies), labor donations, grants from the Lilly Endowment and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and gifts acquired by tribal colleges.
Donors and supporters of the Diné College cultural center construction included AZ Public Service Inc., NTUA of Tuba City, Tuba City Chapter, Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Agency, Citizens Telephone Co, Navajo Communications Co., and SWC, Inc., and the Tuba City Steering Committee.
AIHEC Student Congress develops leadership
Community development and change were two key themes during the 2000 Leading All People Summer Institutes held in Pablo, Mont., and Santa Fe, N. M. At the institute, student representatives from each tribal college were challenged to look at their own leadership style, identify community issues from their own reservation, and develop an action plan. They dealt with topics such as domestic abuse, child care, youth recreation, community identity and small business development.
This was the second year for the institute, which was supported through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and hosted by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Congress, Salish Kootenai College, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Students had the opportunity to look at power structures, group communication, and methods for change. Students will have the next year to complete their action plans.
The AIHEC Student Congress is now raising funds to build a permanent endowment to support the ongoing goals of the Leading All People Summer Institute. For further information or to offer assistance, contact Dana Grant .
Four groups form historic partnership
Four national American Indian organizations took an historic step last October to join forces for the sake of Indian children. At the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) meeting in Sioux Falls, S.D., a memorandum of agreement was signed by representatives of NIEA, the American Indian Education Consortium (AIHEC), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the National Indian School Board Association (NISBA). The agreement created a formal alliance, the Partnership for the Advancement of Native Education. Melody McCoy of the Native American Rights Fund helped them draft the agreement.
"For 500 years, the American Indian family has been attacked," said Dr. David Gipp, then president of AIHEC. "We never know what the government will do for us or to us. It is time for us to work together to set the agenda."
Historically, the organizations have worked together on various matters. However, a disagreement amongst several of the organizations over the interpretation of policy in the national Indian teacher corps led them to formalize their working relationship, according to Gipp. At the signing ceremony, representatives of the organizations said the agreement would help them advocate for and promote the advancement of education for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
UTTC takes lead in tourism development
United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in Bismarck, N.D., has received funding from the U.S. Labor Department to develop a two-year tribal tourism curriculum emphasizing tribal art, marketing, retail business development, and hospitality management. Graduates will earn an associate of applied science in tribal tourism, which is believed to be the first such program in the nation.
Additionally, the program will coordinate efforts to increase the capacity of tribes and individual entrepreneurs in tourism and economic development. Tribal tourism seminars will be conducted at each reservation in North Dakota. An office of American Indian Tourism will eventually be developed. The Labor Department awarded a $744,000 grant to UTTC for the Tribal Tourism Partnership Initiative. The North Dakota grant is part of more than $14 million awarded to colleges and universities on a competitive basis for partnership building and skill training.
North Dakota expects up to 5 million visitors for the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, according to John Beheler of UTTC. Many of these visitors may stop at the log cultural centers, which have been built on many of the tribal college campuses through the AIHEC Cultural Learning Center project. Beheler said this creates new opportunities for tribal artists. UTTC will help the artists learn pricing, packaging, promoting, and production, as well as website marketing to reach people worldwide. Many art pieces now stored at museums around the world will be brought home to be displayed at tribal college cultural centers, he said.
The UTTC interpretive center will include a permanent collection and a performing arts center. "We are ready to take the lead and improve the way our state does tourism. If we benefit, the state will benefit," Beheler said. For 31 years, UTTC has been sponsoring an international pow wow, which he estimates brings more than $3 million into the Bismarck community.
A consortium of organizations is involved in the tourism project, including UTTC Workforce Investment Board, ND/SD Native American Business Development Center, Bismarck-Mandan Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Great Plains Indian Gaming Association, Tribal Tourism Partnership Initiative, United Tribes Cultural Arts Board, United Tribes Indian Artist Guild, North Dakota State Parks, and the tribal colleges. For more information on the project, contact Andrew Rendon at UTTC 701/255-3285, ext. 410.
OLC to improve reservation library service
The Oglala Lakota College (OLC) Learning Resource Center (LRC) received a one-year grant of $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, D.C. Oglala Lakota College's Library System was one of 11 Native American libraries selected because of its potential to serve as an outstanding role model. "These grants provide opportunities for improved library services to an important but often under-served part of the nation's community of library users," said Beverly Sheppard, acting director of the IMLS. "They are using the power of technology to connect people to critical information they want and need," said Sheppard. (IMLS website is
The funding will be used in the 10 district college center libraries to enhance the Native American materials and the Lakota language collections and to train college students to provide library services to the college and the communities. The OLC Learning Resource Center not only serves as the college library, but it is also the only public library on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which has a population of approximately 20,000. The distance to library services will be greatly reduced by creating district college center libraries; the reservation is slightly larger than the state of Connecticut.
Ab Kader, Ph.D., directs the Learning Resource Center and the IMLA project. A native of Pakistan, he has experience in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East as an information systems consultant. Kader said his purpose at OLC was training local people to organize the center to change with the new century.
The information literacy coordinator, Irvine Twin (Oglala Lakota), has 32 years of experience working with computers including 14 years in public and college libraries. Twin said, "It is a challenge to work in an integrated system that provides services to the college network as well as to the public. This is an innovative approach to giving public access to library services, information technology, and research opportunities."
Tribal colleges initiate space programs
Three members of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) will be building space programs thanks to a new minority partnership program initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Of the 60 grant applications NASA received, 10 scored "outstanding" ratings, including all three tribal college applicants, according to Carrie Billy (Navajo), executive director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges & Universities. "I believe the program NASA developed, which resulted from extensive consultation with minority institutions, will be a good model for other federal agencies to emulate. I especially like its focus on bridge building between minority serving institutions and the research community and on capacity building," Billy said.
Diné College-Shiprock, N.M., will develop space science curriculum and then use the Internet to deliver both education and research programs to largely rural populations of Native American and Hispanic students. Students at each of the partner institutions will be able to complete or transfer to a four-year physics and astronomy degree, depending upon the college. The college received $635,000 for three years from NASA.
Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M., will partner with the University of New Mexico to establish a meteorite identification laboratory at SIPI and establish faculty and student research collaborations in Mars surface science. SIPI adopted a unique approach, combining space science knowledge with the Upward Bound format to reach high school students, parents, and teachers. The multi-tribal institution received $488,000 for three years from NASA.
Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont., will develop four new courses in astronomy and astrophysics, including both on-campus and distance delivery. SKC received $12,852 for one year for these courses from NASA.
The new grant program is intended to enhance participation by both two-year and four-year minority institutions in space science education and research programs. In the past, most federal agencies' grant programs involving research limited participation to only four-year universities. NASA wants to increase the understanding of science, technology, and the role of research by a more broad and diverse population.