American Indian Education Fund: Empowering Indigenous Students Through Education
The American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) is a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing scholarships and programming for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) students to access and succeed in higher education. Established in 1989, the College Fund also supports tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) with funding, training, and programs. With the tagline "Education is the answer," the College Fund recognizes that higher education leads to greater economic sustainability and better health outcomes for Indigenous students.
Mission and Scope
The American Indian College Fund's mission is to support AIAN students in their pursuit of higher education. The College Fund provides scholarships and other programs and services to enrolled members of federally recognized and state-recognized Indian tribes and descendants of enrolled tribal members living in the United States, along with Alaska Natives.
To qualify for a scholarship or support, students must be enrolled or enrolling in an accredited nonprofit higher education institution, such as a tribal college or university (TCU) or other private or state college or university to study for a certificate program, associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or terminal degree (such as a Master of Fine Arts, Juris Doctorate, or doctorate degree). Applicants must demonstrate a cumulative 2.00 grade point average and maintain full-time enrollment in an accredited, nonprofit higher education institution to be eligible. Applicants will automatically be considered for other scholarships based on their eligibility.
In 2022-2023, the College Fund supported more than 4,000 Native scholars residing in 43 states to attend 267 colleges and universities. They received scholarships totaling over $17 million. Sixty-seven percent of College Fund scholarship recipients in 2022 had financial need. Of them, 2,718 were the first in their families to attend college. The College Fund can only currently support 1 in 10 applicants with scholarships.
The Need for Financial Assistance
While some tribes offer stipends or scholarships to their tribal citizens, Native Americans as a group do not receive a free college education. In the academic year 2019-2020, the average percentage of students attending TCUs located on or near Indian reservations who received a Federal Pell Grant was 79%. Pell Grants are a major indication of financial need. Research conducted by the National Native Scholarship Providers showed that college affordability is the leading barrier to AIAN students earning a certificate or degree. Conversely, having money to go to school and stay in school increases college completion. Summer school scholarships maintain students’ ties to their institutions year-round, increasing persistence and graduation rates, allowing them to graduate sooner with less debt, and helping them launch their careers sooner.
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Programs and Support Services
The College Fund offers a range of programs to help students plan, prepare, and succeed in college and in their careers. These programs include:
- High school to college programs
- FAFSA application assistance and instruction
- College readiness programs
- An annual Summer of Success Conference
- TCU Transfer programs
- Career planning programs
- Resources for applying to college and career prep
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs)
TCUs are higher education institutions typically chartered by their tribal nations. The Navajo Nation established the first tribal college (Diné College) to provide an affordable, culturally based college education close to home for its people. TCUs receive little or no state funds and are not supported through property taxes like many mainstream community colleges. Today, the College Fund serves 34 TCUs located on or near Indian reservations.
TCUs help revitalize their sovereign tribal nations’ languages, cultures, and spiritual practices by educating the next generation of leaders. In addition to providing college-level courses, TCUs provide high school equivalency programs, skilled trades certification, continuing education, cultural offerings, health centers, community gathering space, early childhood education programs, and libraries to the whole community. The TCUs are located in 16 different states. One offers a doctoral program, eight offer 13 master’s degree programs, and 19 offer 125 bachelor’s degree programs. All TCUs offer 464 associate degree programs and 283 certificate programs, diplomas, and endorsements.
Indigenous Languages
It is estimated that about 200 languages are spoken of the 350 languages that existed at the time of European contact. Language revitalization is an important part of the work the American Indian College Fund finances at the TCUs. The College Fund supports programming in immersive language instruction, Native arts, computer science, high school equivalency, early childhood education programs, environmental science, faculty and staff leadership training, fellowships for faculty and staff professional development and degree attainment, and more to develop both the curriculum and intellectual capacity of the TCUs.
Terminology
Individuals may have differing preferences regarding the use of these terms. Indigenous people in the United States were first referred to as Indians because history tells us Columbus believed he had reached the East Indies when he made landfall in the Caribbean. Today, many Native people prefer the term American Indian, while others use Native American, which was first used in the 1960s for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Native Hawaiians prefer the term Native Hawaiians. Alaska Natives include the culturally distinct Iñupiat, Yupik, Athabascan, Haida, Tlingit, Eyak, Thimshian, and Aleut peoples. Because of their cultural distinctions, these tribal groups prefer to be called Alaska Native instead of American Indian.
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The American Indian College Fund uses the terms American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN), Native, and Indigenous interchangeably about the communities it serves.
Tribal Sovereignty
Federally recognized tribes (also called Indian or Native nations) are considered self-governing-or sovereign nations-by Congress. Constitution, they are not seen as persons of a particular race. The relevant section of the Constitution is Article I, which deals with the legislative powers granted to Congress. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution affords Congress the power “… to regulate commerce with foreign nations…and with the Indian tribes.”
The doctrine of tribal sovereignty was affirmed in three Supreme Court rulings in the 1800s. The doctrine recognizes the right of Native nations to self-govern and run their internal affairs as so-called “domestic, dependent nations.” It also prevents states from interfering with these rights while allowing Congress to override Native nations’ authority.
Indian Reservations
Indian reservations are areas of land reserved by the federal government as permanent tribal homelands. A federal Indian reservation is an area of land reserved for a tribe or tribes under a treaty or other agreement with the United States, executive order, or federal statute or administrative action as permanent tribal homelands, in which the federal government holds title to the land in trust on behalf of the tribe. Approximately 56.2 million acres are held in trust by the United States for various Indian tribes and individuals. administered as federal Indian reservations (i.e., reservations, pueblos, rancherias, missions, villages, communities, etc.). The largest Indian reservation is the Navajo Nation Reservation located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The smallest is the Pit River Tribe’s cemetery in California. Some reservations are the remnants of a tribe’s original land base. Others were created by the federal government for the resettling of Indian people forcibly relocated from their homelands. Not every federally recognized tribe has a reservation. Federal Indian reservations are generally exempt from state authority, including taxation, except when Congress specifically authorizes it.
American Indian Education Fund® (AIEF)
The American Indian Education Fund® (AIEF), a program of Partnership With Native Americans® (PWNA), offers scholarships, literacy programs, and school supplies to help end the cycle of poverty and help Native American students realize their educational dreams. AIEF provides necessary school supplies for children attending school on the reservation in grades K-12. The literacy service provides resources to improve the student’s reading comprehension and learning experience to set them up for success. Designed for capacity building of promising leaders in Tribal communities, the 4 Directions Leadership Development (4D) service provides a cohort-based learning environment for Program Partners, emerging leaders, and other applicants. 4D training advances their leadership skills both professionally and personally.
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Association on American Indian Affairs Scholarship Program
The Association on American Indian Affairs scholarship program was established in 1947 and is the oldest Native scholarship program serving Native Country. In February 1947, the Association partnered with Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York to offer a four-year scholarship which would cover full tuition and housing for a Navajo student. Florence Ivy Begay, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, was the Association’s first scholarship recipient.
In 1948, the Association began formally organizing its scholarship program. The Association undertook a survey to better understand the amount and the scope of the opportunities that were already open to Indigenous students for college, technical, and professional training. It was clear that financial resources were lacking to send Native students to college. The survey concluded that more resources were needed to make advanced education available to all Natives rather than just exceptional students, including average college students. Even an average student who was white had a much better chance of obtaining higher education and specialized training. Furthermore, the Association noted that that there was no central place in which complete information was available on advanced educational opportunities for Natives. Therefore, the Association published in their journal The American Indian a list of all funding opportunities they could find and urged people to contact them if they knew of more, so that they could publish and circulate further information to Native Nations and Native students.
Professional Development Grants Program
The purposes of the Indian Education Professional Development Grants program that are relevant to the FY 2018 grants or later are to increase the number of qualified Indian individuals in professions that serve Indians; and to provide training to qualified Indian individuals to become teachers and administrators.
The Professional Development program requires individuals who receive training to -Perform work related to the training received under the program and that benefits Indian students in an LEA that serves a high proportion of Indian students, or to repay all or a prorated part of the assistance received under the program; andPeriodically report to the Secretary on the individual's compliance with the work requirement until work-related payback is complete or the individual has been referred for cash payback. (via the Professional Development Program Data Collection System).
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