National Endowment
for the Humanities Grant
1997 – Ongoing
About The Program
American Indian communities are seeing barriers and a dramatic decline in the use and practice of their languages, traditional arts, and broader cultural knowledge. TCUs help to shift this trend by offering culture and language maintenance, revitalization, restoration, and preservation activities to the students and communities they serve. The American Indian College Fund was awarded a Challenge Grant in 1993 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that led to the establishment of the NEH Cultural Preservation Program, which supports TCUs to carry out this important work within their communities.
The program is available to all 35 TCUs annually, and provides funding to administer Native culture and language preservation, perpetuation, and revitalization programming within their communities. Some projects include language camps, museum archival documentation, and the establishment of cultural centers on campus.
Program Gallery
Grantees
Aaniiih Nakoda College (Ft. Belknap)
Bay Mills Community College
Blackfeet Community College
Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Chief Dull Knife College
College of Menominee Nation
College of the Muscogee Nation
Diné College
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Fort Peck Community College
Haskell Indian Nations University
Ilisagvik College
Institute of American Indian Arts
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Leech Lake Tribal College
Little Big Horn College
Little Priest Tribal College
Navajo Technical University
Nebraska Indian Community College
Northwest Indian College
Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
Oglala Lakota College
Red Lake Nation College
Salish Kootenai College
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
Sinte Gleska University
Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Stone Child College
Tohono O'odham Community College
Turtle Mountain Community College
United Tribes Technical College
White Earth Tribal and Community College
Related Blogs
A Dialogue with Diné Director Blackhorse Lowe
Diné film and TV director Blackhorse Lowe met with the College Fund to speak about what it means to be an Indigenous director. Lowe grew up on the Navajo Nation hearing traditional and family stories and watching movies–lots of movies, which influenced his path on becoming a film and TV director.
SIPI Drawing Workshop Taps into Native Philosophies of Awareness in Art, Native Identity, Sacredness, and Value
The warm smell of burning firewood wafted around us as we stepped out of the car. The cool still morning and chirping birds greeted us as we entered the building of the Ancestral Rich Treasures of Zuni (ARTZ) which houses silver and turquoise jewelry and is adorned with colorful paintings all created by Zuni artists.
A Time for Change and Innovation – Native Arts and Distance Learning
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) transitioned from holding in-person classes and community events to closing their campuses, instead offering academic courses online or through distance learning. Community programming and events were canceled or postponed, greatly impacting TCUs, students, and the communities they serve.
To help TCUs during the transition, seven TCUs were awarded Distance Learning Grants. Each had a different approach on how they would continue to provide Native Arts programming while keeping their students and community members safe. Each explored how they were going to bring people together while keeping them safely apart.
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Hosts Native Arts Workshops Based in Place
In the fall of 2017, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) hosted a series of traditional Native Arts workshops that relied heavily on the surrounding environment for source materials to help produce a woven cedar mat. Using local resources and materials to create and revitalize traditional Native art forms is the essence of place-based education in the arts.
