Tribal Colleges

Navajo Community College (now Dine College) began offering classes in Arizona as the first tribally controlled native college in 1969. Three years later, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) was founded, and the group soon lobbied for more stable and better funding. When the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act was passed in 1978, seventeen tribal colleges existed. Today, thirty-five tribal colleges serving about 13 percent of the 170,000 American Indian students in college are listed as governing members of AIHEC from fourteen states and one Canadian province. This entry looks at their history and current practice.