Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, MT

The American Indian College Fund and Tribal Colleges

The American Indian College Fund's Mission

The American Indian College Fund transforms Indian higher education by funding and creating awareness of the unique, community-based accredited Tribal Colleges and Universities, offering students access to knowledge, skills, and cultural values which enhance their communities and the country as a whole.

The Fund disburses approximately 6,000 scholarships annually for American Indian students seeking to better their lives through higher education. The Fund also provides support for tribal college needs, ranging from capital support to cultural preservation curricula.

How Tribal Colleges Were Born

American Indian tribal leaders realized they would have to take control of education to reverse centuries of misguided and failed federal education policies. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created a first-of-its-kind educational institution—a college controlled by the tribe, located on the reservation and established specifically to provide higher education to tribal members. With that monumental event, the tribal college movement was born. Since then, the number of tribal colleges has grown to more than 30, located in 13 states and serving more than 250 American Indian Nations from every geographic region in the United States.

When the American Indian College Fund was launched, providing scholarship support to the tribal colleges was its primary mission.

Tribal colleges are beacons of hope for social and economic change in the communities they serve. These institutions are vital to Native America and beneficial to the country as a whole because they help Native communities in the fight against poverty. At the same time, tribal colleges preserve language and culture by integrating these important elements into their curriculum.

Tribal colleges receive little or no local or state tax support, so corporate, foundation and private donations are crucial. As the success of the tribal colleges grows, so does the need for private-sector support.

Tribal college presidents recognized the need to establish an organization to raise private-sector funds for the colleges and to compliment the efforts of its sister organization, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. As a result, the American Indian College Fund was established in 1989. Originally located in New York City, the Fund consolidated its headquarters to one office in Denver, Colorado in 2002.

Today, the Fund also supports cultural preservation projects, capital construction and other programs at the tribal colleges.