When everyone told them it couldn't be done, Joe McDonald, Ed.D., remembers how firmly tribal leaders stuck to their guns and helped draft federal legislation to fund the tribal college system. When her own husband questioned her efforts to get a college degree, Alvena Oldman ignored his cutting remarks and kept on taking classes. When people try…

From the very start each issue of the "Tribal College Journal" (TCJ) was (and remains) a result of weeks of planning, thinking up themes, brainstorming story ideas, and tracking the progress at the various tribal colleges, and then putting it all into a single quarterly issue. In the past 20 years there have been 80 issues dedicated to the Tribal…

Far from the glitzy streets of New York or Los Angeles... where many of this nation's magazines are published... and on the edge of the famed Four Corners Region in the town of Mancos, Colorado ...is the home of the Tribal College Journal (TCJ). Tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, it's much like the tribal colleges it serves, far from big city…

Each semester, hundreds of children find themselves on the campus of a tribal college or university. While their parents are busy working toward that associate's or bachelor's degree, the children are getting their own dose of college life. From Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska--the "northernmost accredited community college"--to Tohono O'odham…

Colleges and universities across the nation offer scholarships to outstanding student athletes to entice them to attend their particular schools. That's not the case with tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). While they may be less expensive to attend, the tribal colleges usually don't have much of a budget for athletics. Still, student players…

Each year thousands of Native students enroll at tribal colleges. Many say the close proximity to home is a draw for them. Others check out the facilities, and some might look over the staff roster and ask how many Native instructors work at the college. Several factors go into their decisions to enroll in a particular tribal college. For their…

For the first time, the race to the White House included a woman and a man of African American heritage. U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both campaigned intensely to claim the Democratic nomination. While this may strike many Americans as historic, for some students attending tribal colleges, the election is still just that, the…

As the sun rises across Indian Country students attending tribal colleges wake up to another day of classes, kids, work, and culture. Many tribal college students are not fresh out of high school. They have often worked, married, and had children before returning to school. A big factor in their decisions to attend tribal colleges is maintaining…