With local lumber mills shutting down, Robert Kenning, an instructor at Salish Kootenai College in western Montana, and the tribe's forestry director, came up with an idea. Kenning landed a $200,000 Department of Agriculture grant in 2010 to explore the possibility of turning logging scraps and smaller trees into chips or pellets that could be sold as an alternative energy source. Kenning's research project and others conducted by tribal colleges drew lively interest when presented at the annual First Americans Land-grant Consortium, or FALCON. Some participants, however, wondered whether such research would thrive in coming years--or even survive, for that matter. Tribal colleges have explored climate change, uranium and toxic waste contamination in soil and water, shifts in flora and fauna, tribal health issues, and other subjects. At the conference, FALCON released results of a survey that showed faculty and administrators at the tribal colleges think that it is important for their schools to do research. Faculty members spoke about alternative energy, native foods, preventing youth suicide, obesity, soil quality in prairie dog habitats, and food-buying habits in tribal communities.