Tribal Colleges and Universities Integral to United States Success

October 11, 2021Melissa W.

Today is Indigenous Peoples Day in the US. It’s a day to honor and celebrate the resilience of Native Americans who occupied the nation first.

Currently, there are 574 federally-recognized Indian Nations and 32 fully-accredited Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) in the United States, according to The U.S. Department of Education. The White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education has stated the following in regards to TCUs, “My Administration is also committed to improving educational opportunities for students attending TCUs. TCUs maintain, preserve, and restore Native languages and cultural traditions; offer a high quality college education; provide career and technical education, job training, and other career building programs; and often serve as anchors in some of the country’s poorest and most remote areas.” (Executive Order 13592)

According to The U.S. Department of Education, there are currently 30,000 full/part-time students attending a TCU. A total of 8.7% of American Indian and Alaska Native college students were attending a TCU. Additionally 78% of all TCU students are American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN). The U.S. Department of Education promotes the importance of TCUs to both students and the community. “TCUs are both integral and essential to their communities, creating environments that foster American Indian culture, languages, and traditions. They are often the only postsecondary institutions within some of our Nation’s poorest rural areas. TCUs serve a variety of people, from young adults to senior citizens, AI to non-American Indians. They also serve as community resources for crucial social services and add hope to communities that suffer from high rates of poverty and unemployment.”

Below is a list of TCUs by state:

Alaska

Ilisagvik College

Arizona

Diné College

Tohono O’odham Community College

Kansas

Haskell Indian Nations University

Michigan

Bay Mills Community College

Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College

Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College