Journeying On The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Native American Higher Education Initiative Phase II NAHEI: Journey of Converging Paths For a few moments, let your path converge with ours on a journey through time. It is a journey toward the convergence of cultures within America, so we share it with you in two languages: the words of mainstream America and symbols from throughout Native America – ancient yet living guides to human purpose and understanding. Our journey reaches back to a troubled crossroad in history, but moves on to an exciting landscape of the future, where… • A Learning Lodge Institute in Montana keeps the language of eleven Native American tribes alive. • Working as partners, a major California university and a South Dakota tribal college establish • Native theater as an integrated subject of study at tribal colleges. • Through sophisticated electronic networks, the tribal colleges of North Dakota extend their reach, bringing distance education to many more students in remote, rural areas. • A consortium in Alaska mobilizes leadership, strengthens curricula, and extends higher education resources for Alaska Native students and villages. • A center in Hawaii provides teacher education and assistance to students and the community in Hawaiian language and culture. These are just a few of the future realities that we pursue down distinct but converging paths as partners in NAHEI, the Native American Higher Education Initiative. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, NAHEI is a partnership of the Foundation, 30 Native American tribal colleges, more than 75 mainstream higher education institutions and community organizations, and four national organizations: • The American Indian College Fund (AICF), which raises funds from the private sector for tribal colleges. • The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), which serves as the national higher education association representing tribal colleges. • The National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education (NINLHE), an institute for Native American educators involved in college and university support programs for Native students. • The American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Congress, which is an elected student body government of all 31 tribal colleges. Though NAHEI partners travel different ways, our ways converge on common goals to advance a shared vision, conceived when NAHEI began in 1995. It is a vision of Native Americans shaping their own and their communities’ futures through higher education that integrates and perpetuates tribal cultures. While maintaining academic rigor, this education honors the people, the land, the air, the water, and the animals that are essential for our nation’s health and humanity’s survival. Our vision compels us to seek ways to offer supportive, culturally relevant, high-quality higher education to all Native Americans. It also reflects the truth that Native Americans have precious assets which higher education can empower them to share. NAHEI’s journey is evidence of these assets, for it did not begin with us. It began with Native Americans hundreds of years ago, and it proceeds today because of their strengths and values. Today, we draw our determination from their history of endurance against all odds. Today, we derive much of our direction from their ways of learning and knowing. Today, we find our hope in all that Native Americans already have achieved The Long Hard Road to Survival Historically, Indian education was aimed at assimilation. Almost from their arrival, European colonists attempted to formally educate Native Americans, and Native Americans suffered as a result. For example, in 1711, Native children of leaders in many tribes were taken hostage and schooled by the colony of Virginia in an attempt to ensure its safety. Many of these children died, either from illness, the radical change in their way of life, or outright neglect. Over a century later, the outcome was little better as the late 19th century federal boarding school system was established to assimilate Native Americans into Euro-American culture. Though this system of education had tragic results, it ultimately failed at its purpose. Native American peoples and their cultures persist despite assimilationist schooling, racism, neglect, ridicule, and devastating poverty. The Way to Small Miracles After the 1960s – the era when Native Americans seized the reins of self- determination – their ways of learning and knowing led to small miracles. Few Native Americans were succeeding in traditional higher education institutions. In response, a few Native communities began to develop the first tribal colleges. It was a historic turning point: at least some Native American students could begin to enjoy higher education that embraced, rather than rejected, their cultures. Native-controlled colleges and their students began to succeed. Their success has grown and gained momentum through the years. By 1989, 10,000 students were attending tribal colleges. Today, 25,000 students attend more than 30 tribal colleges. And, while up to 96 percent of Native American students leave mainstream higher education without a degree, 86 percent of tribal college students successfully complete their courses of study (usually two-year programs), and almost half of them then go on to mainstream universities or colleges. Their graduation rate from these mainstream institutions is much higher than that of other Native students. Most tribal colleges are underdeveloped, underbuilt, and under extreme, daily budget constraints, yet they work wonders. Student-centered, respectful of spirituality, viewing learning as a lifelong process, and devoted to community development, the colleges embody cutting-edge educational concepts that point the way for mainstream institutions of higher education. Also, most of the tribal colleges have gained accreditation, and all of them have gained land-grant status. Making Headway in the Mainstream These colleges cast a bright light on the future of Native American education. But at present, they offer a very limited range of programs and degrees, and serve relatively few students. Some 75 percent of Native American college students attend mainstream higher education institutions, where their graduation rates remain alarmingly low. At the same time that some tribal nations were developing the first tribal colleges, some Native Americans continued to demand more meaningful inclusion in mainstream higher education. Many institutions responded and in various ways: with family-like support networks for Native American students, academic enhancements, cultural and spiritual events, mentor programs, and innovative teaching methods. Through these efforts, mainstream institutions have made progress – but not widespread improvement in Native American retention and graduation rates. Current statistics show that only four percent of Native Americans graduate from four-year institutions, two percent attend graduate school, and less than one percent complete graduate studies. By the mid-1990s, the journey toward high-quality higher education for Native Americans had reached a new crossroad. Tribal colleges offered Native students academic success but meager resources. Mainstream schools offered them academic resources but meager cultural context. At this point, the Kellogg Foundation – committed to both cultural diversity and education – joined the journey by funding NAHEI, a partnership with enough resources to travel on. First, NAHEI Led to Common Ground Despite highly diverse partners, NAHEI’s first 18-month phase helped find solid, common ground. Together, tribal colleges, mainstream institutions, national organizations, community organizations, and the Kellogg Foundation found the way to a shared vision and forged coalitions to make it a reality. Many of the partners also developed individual strengths. • Three national organizations, AIHEC, NINLHE, and AICF, increased their capacities to develop sustainable educational programs and policies. • The tribal colleges enlarged their capacities to use their land-grant status – which provides both greater visibility and access to the resources of other land-grant schools – to serve their students and communities. • In partnership with these other entities, the Kellogg Foundation created a plan and criteria to guide, support, and promote NAHEI’s newly defined, strategic initiatives, and to link NAHEI to national higher education agendas. Most important, the cause of Native American higher education gained something that it never before had enjoyed: high expectations of success from everyone involved. Now, NAHEI Proceeds on Many Paths In 1997, with more than $22 million from the Kellogg Foundation, NAHEI entered its action phase. Through the year 2001, we will use our vision, coalitions, capacities, and strategies in a landmark effort to: • Increase Native American access to and success in higher education; • Provide excellent, culturally relevant academic programs; • Develop learning environments that support and encourage academic and personal growth; • Enhance Native American students’ connections to their communities, cultural traditions, and larger society; • Increase our nation’s understanding of and respect for Native American cultures and ways of knowing. To make certain that our many paths converge on these goals, Phase II will proceed in four ways. With NAHEI grants and AIHEC administration, tribal colleges will increase their strengths across the board, in fundraising, faculty