While Globalizing Their Movement, Tribal Colleges Import Ideas

Overview & Synopsis

Thirty-seven years ago, the Navajo people in Arizona created the first tribally-controlled college in the world. This birth fired the imagination of educators and community activists across the United States, who soon began creating their own colleges in the Northern Plains, Midwest, Northwest, and, most recently, in Oklahoma and the East. It is commonly believed that education is a path out of poverty, but this is not necessarily true in places where education is controlled by the colonizer. In many parts of the world, schools are designed to perpetuate the power of the dominant culture.