Year: 2009 Blogs

For those of our supporters in Colorado and ur friends coming in from across Indian Country, we are looking forward to seeing you at the Denver March Powwow this week at the Denver Coliseum.

In the Sunday edition of The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman shows how he is “thinking Indian.” He postulates that the economic crisis of 2008 may represent something more fundamental than a recession, and perhaps it was the Earth and the market’s way of telling our world that we cannot continue with the cycle of consumption that was not sustainable.

Consider the facts: the average tribal college student is a 27-year-old single mother of three, and is often the first in her family to attend college. By ensuring that these young mothers attend college, they are assured of greater earning potential, helping them to better support their children and to give them better lives.

In August 2008 former President George W. Bush signed Congress the Higher Education Reauthorization and College Opportunity Act of 2008 into law. The reauthorization will help more students attend tribal colleges across the country and will include funding for tribal colleges across the United States. It also authorizes an annual increase from $6,000 to $8,000 for each student attending a tribal college.

Despite the bleak economic indicators, including a high jobs loss report at the end of January, there is reason to be optimistic about American Indian education and the Fund. Our supporters are some of the most loyal and devoted people in the country. Even when times are tough, they give something. Our students and the Fund are blessed to be able to count on our corporate, foundation, and individual supporters.

I was personally saddened when my friend and former tribal college resident and veteran of the tribal college movement, Sky Houser, passed on on January 29, 2009. Sky died at a hospice facility near his sister’s home in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at age 65. At the time of his death, he was the special projects officer for the Scott Bordeaux Leadership Institute at Sinte Gleska University.

Over the years, it has become less politically correct for people to be openly racist (although American Indians still suffer from open racism.) As a result, racism has gone underground—and people are graceful and pleasant to one’s face, while continuing to hold onto their racist attitudes and behaviors behind one’s back. Hence, I coined the term gracist.

Debra Reed of the American Indian College Fund will be discussing how to prepare for scholarships on Native America Calling Friday, January 16, from 11a.m.-noon MST.

The Fund was created in 1989 by the tribal colleges and universities and private partners to raise scholarship funds and funding for America’s tribal colleges. The first tribal college was Diné College, founded as Navajo Community College, in 1968. Today there are 32 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which serve college students and provide much-needed services to American Indian communities.