And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 02:11:26 EDT >From Victor's pechanga.net - Enrollment growing in tribal colleges Statewire http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=75835721 LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The growing appeal of higher education on American Indian reservations has helped increase enrollment at more than 30 tribal colleges in a dozen Western and Midwestern states, including Wisconsin. The movement began in the 1970s. Enrollments nearly tripled between 1989 and 1999, from 10, 000 to 26, 500, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. " My enrollment is escalating, skyrocketing, " Verna Fowler, president of the Menominee Community College in Wisconsin, told the newspaper. " Six years ago, we began with 49 students. This past semester we served very close to 497 students. I' ve been peddling as fast as I can to keep my head above water, " Fowler said. Blending Indian culture with traditional mainstream academic fare, tribal colleges provide crucial support systems to people who might not otherwise go to school. " The movement has to do with self-determination, " said Janine Pease Pretty on Top, president of the Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Mont. " It' s quite a big step to declare your own education system." American Indians traditionally have been relegated to an education system that sought to assimilate them into white society, a system in which many Indians failed. As a result, American Indians saw the need for their own schools. In 1968, the Navajo Nation chartered the first tribal college. In the ensuing decade, 20 more tribal colleges were chartered and enrollment numbers have risen sharply since. As tribal college reputations grow, so do the types of students they attract. Traditionally, the schools have been attended by 30-something mothers. That trend is changing. Today, students fresh from high school are choosing tribal colleges, and a growing number are white. More than 30 percent of students at the Salish Kootenai College on Montana' s Flathead Reservation are white. The school' s president, Joe McDonald, attributes the large white enrollment to quality academic and vocational programs, geographic location and a goal to become a regional college. Tribal colleges also are becoming rooted as community centers. They help, for example, community members cope with welfare reform laws by promoting job training and educational opportunities. Despite impressive academic gains over the last three decades, tribal colleges still have a number of obstacles to overcome. They receive half the core funding mainstream community colleges receive, leaving scant funds for teacher salaries, dining facilities, dormitories, libraries or technological development. The Navajo Nation, the country' s largest tribe, was the first to establish education on its own terms. The tribe chartered Dine College in Tsaile, Ariz., in 1968. Today, its 1, 800 full-time students make it the nation' s largest tribal college. With 80 students, Little Priest Community College in Winnebago, Neb., is among the smallest. Founded three years ago, the college was among the quickest to receive accreditation, which was awarded in 1998. Despite their success, tribal schools often disappear from mainstream society' s radar screen. " We' re so unknown, " said Lionel Bordeaux, president of Sinte Gleska University on South Dakota' s Rosebud Sioux Reservation. " When they do hear about us, they think we' re a fly-by-night operation. We' ve been here 30 years. The gains, though substantial, are still baby steps." Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&