Our homelands have endowed us with the means to survive for many generations. With this sacred covenant to our land, water, and energy, tribal ways of knowing are critical in reversing damage, as colonial tactics, thinking, and values have impacted our communities’ self-sufficiency.

Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) have met the moment of fostering access to Western knowledge as it pertains to tribal resources, but we have also advanced and secured for ourselves and our communities the application of tribal protocols, place-based perspectives, and eminent knowledge to meet challenges posed by climate change, post-pandemic residual impacts, and a dramatically changed political landscape. In times of despair and strife, we look to the land by physically taking in its bounty and remembering the stories that inform our pathway to resilience and prosperity.

Healing our homelands and the people who reside there encompasses wide-ranging efforts such as the return of the buffalo as a viable keystone species, land-based habitat restoration and protection, the reasonable diversification of the use and management of water and energy resources, and the development of a way forward toward greater food sovereignty. The intentional imposition of external food, water, and energy resources has led to tribal dependency as well as dire economic and social conditions in tribal homelands. This has amplified the need for healing from historical trauma. Today, modern solutions are being formulated at the TCUs as we celebrate 30 years as Land Grant institutions.

TCUs continue to innovatively leverage resources provided by the USDA and other federal agencies. They provide community-generated responses and advance tribal ways of knowing despite the limitations posed by the lack of tribal jurisdiction over areas surrounding our diminished land bases. Through partnerships and collaborations, we seek to find common footing to ensure that our tribal communities can both thrive and co-exist with other communities, local governments, and outside interests that are not always in alignment with tribal perspectives on the use of land, water, and energy resources.

In conversations with federal, local, and tribal authorities, TCUs are intentional in their efforts to re-connect our youth and students to the land—our first teacher and constant companion in our time on this earth. As a primary source of knowledge, that which is embedded in our ways of knowing includes lessons that are life-changing and meaningful. This knowledge helps build tribal capacity so that our students can pursue careers that are driven by the desire to maintain a balanced existence among tribal people who depend on the land, water, and energy of our homelands.

Stewardship of the land and its resources requires the validation and application of tribal knowledge generated in the community and at the TCUs. This knowledge will enhance the educational journey of our students, who in turn will be tasked with the responsibility to pass it on to future generations.

Brad Hall, EdD

President, Blackfeet Community College

Tribal College Journal Advisory Board Member