Did you know there are federal laws regarding what museums can keep in their collections when it comes to Native peoples? The American Indian College Fund believes elevating the visibility of contemporary Native artists and their voices is integral to telling our stories. It is just as important for Native people to be represented respectfully and accurately through the arts in museums and other institutions.
Native Americans are more impacted by the law than any other group in the United States. Native students in higher education, or seeking a higher education, in particular are impacted by federal and state laws impacting funding for education, such as Pell Grants, student loans, and federal funding for tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), 70% of which comes from federal sources.
Jade Araujo, an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) in Massachusetts and a descendant of the Tlingit and Koyukon Athabascan tribes in Alaska, is the third person to have been awarded the American Indian College Fund Law School Scholarship. Araujo is a senior at Stanford University who will graduate in June with a degree in political science and will enter Harvard Law School in the fall. She is the daughter of Todd Araujo (Aquinnah Wampanoag) and Jaeleen Kookesh (Tlingit and Koyukon Athabascan).
The American Indian College Fund provides the next generation of Native teachers with the support they need—financial and otherwise—to succeed in their important education careers, while also supporting tribal colleges and universities with teacher education programs to provide them with a quality education. Together we are working to ensure Native voices and perspectives are seen and heard in the classroom—and Native students have the support to succeed.
Women and girls are sacred in Native communities and the disproportionate rates of violence against Native women is deeply concerning. More than four out of five of our Native mothers, aunts, sisters, and daughters experienced violence (84.3%) in 2022, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics.
The American Indian College Fund was saddened to hear of the passing of Carole Falcon-Chandler, longtime president of Aaniiih Nakoda College (ANC), a tribal college located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana, on April 23, 2024.
Today, April 22, is the 54th Earth Day since its first celebration, which birthed the modern environmental movement in 1970. It is a day to raise awareness of the damage done to the planet and the need for more sustainable practices in every aspect of life and industry. For Indigenous peoples, the responsibility to care for the earth and the environments that shaped our cultures is one we have carried for millennia. That commitment to the places that are a part of us persists today in the studies and careers many Native people pursue.
American Indian College Fund (College Fund) President and CEO, Cheryl Crazy Bull, will be hosting a three-part webinar series titled “Native Higher Education Insights.” Over the course of three sessions, she will cover what’s changed in the higher education environment post-pandemic and news from the various tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) and Native students.
The 2023 winning Tribal College Blanket Design, Drum Keepers, is now available for purchase. The blanket is the latest addition to Pendleton Woolen Mills’ American Indian College Fund collection. The acclaimed lifestyle brand from Portland, Oregon has created wool blankets in partnership with the College Fund for more than 20 years. A portion of the blanket line’s sales provide approximately $50,000 in annual Native student scholarships. Pendleton also contributes to a scholarship endowment that, combined with the total of scholarships disbursed, exceeds $2.5 million. Trey Blackhawk (Winnebago) is a graduate of Little Priest Tribal College with a degree in liberal arts who is currently working on an applied sciences degree.
