For most of a full career in sociology and education, Aaron Tadgerson has dwelt on the relationship between communities and the school systems that purport to serve them. The special problems of Indian education derive from that relationship. Tadgerson serves as the recruiter, retention, and land grant development coordinator for Bay Mills Community College. The tribal college has chartered 40 schools in mostly troubled, mostly urban communities throughout greater Michigan, as well as one at Bay Mills Indian Community in Brimley, Michigan. Like many in his generation, Tadgerson believes the United States' educational systems have brought cross-generational trauma, sometimes tragedy, to American Indians. Unlike many, he believes he has seen the beginnings of a solution--using community asset-based development practices and the charter school movement. In return for complying with state mandates on academic performance, financial management, and other issues, charter schools authorized by community colleges enjoy relative freedom from regulation. For communities that have been isolated from mainstream education channels, one advantage is pretty clear: their schools have an enhanced chance of hiring faculty who look like their students and share their culture. Charter schools also invariably place local, concerned parents on the school board. Both steps amount to a significant stride in developing the community asset, not to mention the household good feeling of student success. Under Michigan law, community colleges can authorize charter schools within a limited area. When Bay Mills Community College authorized charter schools in distant Bay City and Pontiac, it staked a claim to a statewide service area, arguing that Native students reside statewide and that the reservation-based college is run by a tribal council that is not part of a fixed school district. So as Bay Mills Community College helps to restore the Native culture of its own community, it helps to grow the diversity of communities throughout the state.