College grants for native american

After two decades of prayers, politicking

and impassioned pleas, tribal colleges have

gained greater access to federal grants

under an executive order signed by President

Clinton.

"Hot damn," said an elated Dr. Janine Pretty

On Top, president of Little Big Horn College on

the Crow reservation in Montana. "It's a big coup

for such a small group of colleges."

Pretty On Top and other officials with the

nation's twenty-nine tribal-run colleges have been

pressing every administration for such an order

since President Carter was in office.

The order, similar to ones for historically

Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving

institutions, requires federal agencies to consider

the colleges for contracts and grants.

Called the White House Initiative on Tribal

Colleges and Universities, it also creates an

advisory panel that will annually grade the

agencies' progress.

The panel also will push for the colleges'

accreditation, promote preservation of native

languages and cultures, and strengthen the schools'

links to other education programs.

The tribal colleges, which stretch from

California to Wisconsin, have been overlooked in

the past because of their small size and remote

locations, Native-American officials said.

"There has been a tendency to believe all

Indians are taken care of through the Bureau of

Indian Affairs," said Dr. Gerald Monette, president

of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

The colleges, chartered by tribes to serve

25,000 students in twelve states, rely on the

federal government for 50 percent

to 90 percent of their funding. But

that has not been enough. Research

indicates tribal colleges received an

average of $2,900 for each full-time student

last year. That compares to $6,200 per student

for most other community colleges.

"It's been difficult times for tribal colleges

because of the cutbacks in federal spending,"

Monette said. "They have been treated like other

parts of the government and had to scale back."

Although the tribal colleges have been

authorized to receive up to $40 million, Monette

said that the colleges "have never seen close to that

amount." For the past two years, the schools have

received about $20 million. And unlike their

counterparts, mainstream community colleges, the

tribal colleges in most cases receive no money from

the states in which they are located.

"In most instances, states have not felt they

had an obligation to fund higher education

institutions on Indian reservations," Monette said.

"They see that as a federal responsibility."

Even though tribal colleges began pressing for

the executive order in 1970, historically slack

institutions received a similar order in 1980 and one

was signed for Hispanic-serving institutions in

1990.

"Those orders have been extremely successful

in gaining dollars for those institutions," said

Veronica Gonzales, the consortium's director of

federal relations. "Even though we were advocating

for this before the HBCUs, I think our colleges

were smaller and more remote. It was just a matter

of getting the attention of the right people."

U.S. Education Secretary Richard W.

Riley said that the tribal colleges "provide an

invaluable service and it's time that we look

for ways to increase their contribution."

Ada Deer, assistant secretary of the

federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, said the

executive order "will enhance tribal

sovereignty and create tools for Indian

people to be more self-sufficient. About

two-thirds of the students at these colleges

are women," she said. "Many have gone on

to become teachers."

Deer, acknowledging that twenty years

is a long time to wait, said that "government

many times moves slowly." She credited

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt for

strongly supporting the measure.

Dr. Verna Fowler is president of the

College of the Menominee Nation in

Kasheena, Wisconsin. Established in 1993, it

is the newest of the twenty-nine colleges and

serves 255 students.

Fowler said she believes it took twenty

years to get the executive order signed because

"there are people in Washington who don't

even know that [tribal colleges] exist."

Despite the excitement that Fowler and

other tribal college officials said they feel

now that the order has been signed, they also

realize the order doesn't translate into instant

money. It will take up to two years for the

various agencies to begin considering which

funds would be eligible for the tribal colleges

and how the colleges might aid in some of the

agencies' programs.

"There are no guarantees," warned Pretty

On Top. "It doesn't mean there is a bunch of

money out there just waiting for us. It means

an opportunity."

Tribal college officials believe the order

will enable them to form partnerships with

some federal agencies -- such as the

Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation

departments -- to conduct research areas in

which the colleges have expertise.

"We have expertise in rural development

because all of our colleges are rurally located

and we work with small, economically

hard-pressed communities," Pretty On Top

explained.

Some tribal colleges have initiated talks

with the Defense Department, seeking grants

to research on how best to provide social

services to minorities and rural peoples.

"These are the sorts of the things that the

tribal colleges couldn't apply for before the

executive order because we were not eligible,"

Pretty On Top said. "And this is just a hint

of what could happen.

"This doesn't necessarily mean a whole

lot of new money," she added. "It means

opportunity, a chance to open the frontiers

of opportunity for faculty and students."

RELATED ARTICLE: The 29 U.S. American Indian Colleges

1 Bay Mills Community College, Brimley, Mich.

2 Blackfeet Community College, Browning, Mont.

3 Cheyenne River Community College, Eagle Butte, S.D.

4 College of the Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wis.

5 Crownpoint of Technology, Crownpoint, N.M.

6 D-Q University, Davis, Calif.

7 Dull Knife Memorial College, Lame Deer, Mont.

8 Fond du Lac Community College, Cloquet, Minn.

9 Fort Belknap Community College, Harlem, Mont.

10 Fort Berthold Community College, New Town, N.D.

11 Fort Peck Community College, Poplar, Mont.

12 Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kan.

13 Institute of American Indian Arts, Sante Fe, N.M

14 Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Hayward, Wis.

15 Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, Minn.

16 Little big Horn College, Crow Agency, Mont.

17 Little Hoop Community College, Fort Trotten, N.D.

18 Navajo Community College, Tsaile, Ariz.

19 Nebraska Indian Community College, Winnebago, Neb.

20 Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, Wash.

21 Oglala Lakota College, Kyle, S.D.

22 Salish Kootenai College, Pablo, Mont.

23 Sinte Gleska University, Rosebud, S.D.

24 Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, N.D.

25 Sisseton-Wahpeton Community College, Sisseton, S.D.

26 Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Albuquerque, N.M.

27 Stone Child Community College, Box Elder, Mont.

28 Turtle Mountain Community College, Belcourt, N.D.

29 United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, N.D.