DOCUMENT RESUME ED 356 108 RC 019 019 AUTHOR Oppelt, Norman T. TITLE The Tribally Controlled Indian Colleges: The Beginnings of Self Determination in American Indian Education. REPORT NO ISBN-0-912586-67-2 PUB DATE 90 NOTE 159p. AVAILABLE FROM Navajo Community College Press, Navajo Community College, Tsaile, AZ 86556 ($20), PUB TYPE Books (010) Information Analyses (070) Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *American Indian Education; American Indian History; *Community Colleges; *Educational History; *Educational Opportunities; Federal Indian Relationship; Higher Education; *Institutional Characteristics; Profiles; Self Determination; *Tribally Controlled Education ABSTRACT This book examines tribally controlled Indian colleges established since the early 1960s and provides perspectives on their educational philosophy, history, and present status. Chapter 1 is an overview of four centuries of abortive efforts by churches and the federal government to provide higher education for American Indians, including profiles of specific missionary schools, factors in the failure of missionary education, the unusual success of Choctaw Academy, features of Carlisle Indian School and other federally funded off-reservation boarding schools, and the effeAs on Indian higher education of the General Allotment Act of 1887 and termination policies of the 1950s. Chapter 2 discusses the birth of tribally controlled community colleges amidst the social activism of the 1960s, and presents profiles of 19 such institutions. Chapter 3 summarizes and analyzes information on the tribally controlled colleges: student characteristics, enrollments, faculty, administrators, physical facilities, student services, college objectives, external influences, funding, and accreditation. Chapter 4 outlines other higher education opportunities for Americ;tn Indians and Alaska Natives: federally controlled two-year colleges, special programs for the preparation of Indian professionals, colleges or universities with high Native American enrollments and degrees earned, and Indian Studies programs. Chapter 5 summarizes the history and current status of Indian higher education. This book contains approximately 300 references and an index.(SV) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** r cr 4, re- z.' -4 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION .111* nI E ducat on.. Research and IrnprOvmen1 EDUCATIONAL RE SOURCES INFORMATION -EWE R ,ERICI u",e,t has Peen reproducedes ecerveo I 0^ the person ororgrexeppn / ,rnitnalrj m.no, (N5r,(2e% nave Peen moue10 ,reproe produr I r -4 Pps Paco Po,nts 0 r,e.. Or op.n.Ons slated",represent officri ,!''- i i% r"ent do .01 "eresser.ry e.cl-i4,t'' ,.7,A -ART 005 I nn Or pOnCy _,..., --e, $ c477. 9; ;..)''' ' PERM.SS -0 REPQCDUCE HIS .4A7ER BEE` :,RANTED BY TC THE TONAL RESOURCES INFORMA- C`J CENTER ,ERICI The Tribally Controlled Indian Colleges The Tribally Controlled Indian Colleges: The Beginnings of Self Determination In American Indian Education Norman T. Oppelt Navajo Community College Press Tsai le, Arizona 1990 Copyright u by Norman Ti Oppelt. All rights reserved. No part of this hook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic- or mechanical, including photocopying, record- ing or by any information storage or retrieval system, with- out permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Navajo Community College Press Navajo Community College kill le, Arizona 86556 International Standard Book Number 0-912586-67-2 Library of Congress Number 89-43568 ti TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Preface List of Tables Chapter 1 Historic Antecedents of ContemporaryIndian Higher Education 1 The Missionary Period The Federal Period: A Century of Continued Neglectof Higher Education for Indians Chapter 2 American Indian Higher Education inthe 1960s: Profiles of the 19 Tribally Controlled Colleges 31 Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis of the TriballyControlled Colleges in 1982 76 Chapter 4 Other Higher Education Opportunities for American Indians in the 1980s 94 Federally Controlled Two-year Colleges; University Programs for the Preparation of Indian Professionals Indians in State Institutions of Higher Education Independent Institutions Founded During the 1970sfor the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives Private Institutions Which Continue to Enroll LargeNumbers of American Indians; Indian Studies Program in Institutionsof Higher Education Indian Higher Education Enrollments and DegreesEarned Chapter 5 American Indian Higher Education inthe 1980s: A Summary, Analysis, and Look intothe Future 116 List of References 125 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the ten years of research and writing many included in this study have graciously given me the persons have contributed to this hook. It is impossi- information needed on my visits to their schools ble to list them all, but a few deserve special recog- and telephone calls to them. The members of the nition for their assistance. Dr. Margaret C. Szasz of Dino Indian Club at the University of Northern Col- Albuquerque has aided and encouraged me over the orado provided me valuable insight into the prob- years and deserves my grateful appreciation. Others lems of the Indian student in a white dominated who have given of their time and knowledge are: institution. John Emhoolah Jr., Denver; Howard Adams, Davis, Ms. Anna Walters of the Navajo Community Col- California; Bob Roessel, Window Rock, Arizona; lege Press is thanked for seeing the value of this John Tippeconic, Tempe, Arizona; Joe Martin, Tuba hook and her sensitive editing of the manuscript. City, Arizona; Tom Duncan, Winters, California; This hook is dedicated to my wife, Pat, who ac- Jack Barden, Ft. Yates, North Dakota; and Lowell companied me on my travels to the tribal colleges Amiotte, Spearfish, South Dakota. Gerald Brown throughout the western United States. She is the and Gordon Dempsey, formerly of Navajo Commu- only one who understands and appreciates my com- nity College, introduced me to the first tribally con- mitment to improving higher education of American trolled college in 1975. Indians. Without her love and support this hook Many administrators and faculty of the colleges would not have been written. PREFACE 11111111111111M111=4.101, Since the Europeans first arrived in North America, tribes and their members than in the two hundred they have made efforts io provide schooling for Years since the first Indian graduated from Harvard some of the people they mistakenly called "Indi- University. No longer must all tribal people who ans." With very few exceptions the schools and pro- seek a higher education attend a white dominated grams for Indians have been planned and controlled institution where they may be treated as a foreigner by non-Indians. Therefore tnev are most accurately in their own land. Most Americans, including maw,. termed education for Indians rather than Indian ed- Indians, are unaware of the existence and signifi- ucation. The early missionaries designed education cance of the tribally controlled colleges. This book is for Indians to convert and civilize the native peo- thestory of the development ofthese unique ples, and the later schools operated by the federal schools and what they have accomplished in the government were planned to pacify and assimilate higher education of American Indians. the Indians into the dominant culture. Most of these The term "Indian" is unacceptable to, and is even efforts met with failure because they were planned seen as derogatory by some descendents of the orig- by whites to meet their goals and not to meet the inal Americans. Some prefer to be called Native needs of the Indians. A few early colleges were Americans, a term that became particularly popular founded to provide higher education for selected In- among some Indian activists in the 1960s. The term dians, but the curriculum was useless to more tradi- Native American can he misleading because it is in- tional Indians and they were so resistant to cultural terpreted by some people as meaning anyone horn change that these schools were doomed to failure. in North America, regardless of the origin of their Chapter 1 is an overview of the abortive church and ancestors.Inspite of its geographic inaccuracy, federal government efforts to provide higher educa- some descendents of the first Americans still prefer tion for American Indians. the commonly used Indian, Because there is no one In the late1960s and 1970s American Indians term preferred by all First Americans, the writer has were, for the first time in their long contact with chosen to use the word "Indian" when referring to whites, able to have a significant voice in the plan- descendents of the original inhabitans of America. ning and control of some of their institutions of Many prefer to be referred by their tribal name and higher education. The establishment of the new are so designated in this book. tribally controlled colleges located on, or near, west- Many of these persons have been raised, and may ern reservations began an exciting era in Indian continue to live, in a family or extended kingroup higher education. More has been accomplished in where traditional tribal beliefs and ways are prac- the two decades since the founding of the first tribal ticed