American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a major change in American Indian education. This change was the advent of self-determination in education for some western American Indians. Rough Rock Demonstration School (1966) and Ramah High School (1970), located on different sections of the huge Navajo Reservation, were the first modern American Indian controlled elementary and secondary schools. At the higher education level, the founding of sixteen tribally controlled colleges on western reservations between 1968 and 1978 has initiated self-determination in American Indian post-secondary education. Little research has been done on these schools; in fact, they are unknown to many persons in the field of higher education. Other than persons who have worked at these colleges, few educators know of their importance in American Indian education. This article has been written to inform interested persons about the present status of these tribal colleges, their progress and problems, and to speculate about their future. The first tribally controlled college, Navajo Community College, was chartered by the Navajo Tribe in 1968. Classes were first offered in 1969 at the small reservation town of Many Farms where NCC shared facilities with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ secondary school. The motivation for founding Navajo Community College was the realization by many Navajos that existing off-reservation White institutions were not meeting the postsecondary education needs of most Navajos. There were too many dropouts, wasted human resources and the preservation and transmission of the Navajo language and traditional culture was discouraged. The Navajo wanted their own college, planned and controlled by their people. They believed that an American Indian controlled college on the reservation would provide services to the tribe and would encourage educated Navajos to return to their homeland where they would provide resident expertise in a number of fields.