History

In 1989, Paul Boyer backed his Honda up at the Sacramento Post Office dock to ship five boxes of magazines. His tiny vehicle was dwarfed by the semi-trucks also lined up at the dock, which could have easily crushed his car without ever noticing. His mission was worth the risk. He was delivering the very first issue of Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education (TCJ). Some skeptics scoffed at the quixotic effort, starting a new educational journal with no major university sponsors and no financial backers. As he described that first journal, it was primitive: 24 black and white pages designed on an early Macintosh computer and with a print run of only 1,000. When the tribal colleges’ demand exceeded the supply, Boyer ordered a second printing, and the journal was fully born. On Nov. 14, 1989, the tribal college presidents on the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) board of directors passed a motion to support the journal with $15,000 to cover four quarterly issues, a huge commitment for the tribal colleges but less than most magazines would spend on postage alone for a single issue. A hybrid of academic research and journalism, the journal fit into no established and proven niche. The AIHEC board gave it the editorial independence it needed to maintain credibility.

Over the ensuing decades, TCJ evolved into a modern multimedia platform with a variety of imprints and websites. Its readership has dramatically expanded, but its mission has remained the same. TCJ serves as a meeting place for America’s tribal colleges and universities. It is a hub where faculty share ideas about pedagogy, curriculum, or their research endeavors; where TCUs announce their latest successes and campus news; where students showcase their creativity through art, writing, and film; and it is a place where the world can witness how tribal colleges are transforming Indian education and uplifting Native nations.

In 1989, TCU legend Lionel Bordeaux was president of Sinte Gleska College, chair of the AIHEC board, and an inaugural advisory board member of TCJ. In his introduction to the first issue of the journal, he wrote, “The publication of Tribal College Journal provides us with a new means to continue our sharing and expand our circle….Through Tribal College Journal, we hope to extend that mission not only from college to college and tribe to tribe but into the national and international educational communities where we look forward to enhancing our special and unique contributions.” Decades later, TCJ continues to do just that.