Three Sisters: Lessons of traditional story honored in assessment and accreditation

Within the traditional cultural teachings of Indigenous people, our creation stories explain our origin and our roles, responsibilities, and purpose as human beings. We are caretakers for creation.

The three sisters story is shared across many tribes. It explains the practice of planting corn, beans, and squash together. The corn stalks provide support for the bean vines; the beans provide nitrogen for the corn; and the squash prevents weed growth between the mounds. Such stories explain not only the science of agricultural methods in tribal peoples’ planting practices. They also provide invaluable lessons about sacrifices made to meet the people’s needs, the importance of reciprocal relationships, and the values that nurture the growth of our products.

Such teachings are relevant to the work of assessment, accreditation, and service. Sacrifices made in the 40-year history of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) and the long history of Indigenous peoples contribute to the harvest we seek today. Experience has provided us with best practices for nurturing and producing graduates. This is not to suggest assessment, accreditation, and service rise to the level of origin or creation stories. Instead this analogy implies that activities related to assessment, accreditation, and service are not new. These concepts are well understood by tribal peoples.

Assessment enables us to determine whether the seeds we plant today will produce the quality and number of graduates needed to serve the people tomorrow. Accreditation forces us to review the conditions we plant under and to evaluate whether we have the necessary resources to continue producing. Our Indigenous traditions require looking into the future and preparing to ensure the survival of the people.

In April of 2006, faculty and staff from the tribal colleges and universities met over coffee at the annual American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) Conference to talk about challenges related to assessment. Participants expressed the need for TCUs to periodically come together and share “best practices” — ideas that work within tribal college settings. TCUs with proven assessment programs offered to share expertise and resources with other institutions to ensure the TCUs moved forward together. Out of these discussions, a web list was developed, and Mark Bellcourt, Ed.D., from the University of Minnesota, began facilitating a discussion board amongst participants.

At summer institutes in 2006 and 2007, we shared culturally relevant expertise to support our relatives in the tribal college system. With grant support from the Spencer Foundation, Haskell Indian Nations University has hosted these institutes in Lawrence, KS, and they have attracted 80 faculty and staff from 17 TCUs and a number of professional organizations.

Several challenges have emerged from these discussions. Despite their limited resources, the TCUs must develop assessment strategies and practices that meet accreditation requirements and that embrace the unique missions of these institutions. Many mainstream institutions have entire programs and staff dedicated to developing assessment programs and generating data/findings from these initiatives. Tribal colleges and universities, on the other hand, often add duties for assessment on to staff’s and faculty’s already full workloads.

All institutions must deal with getting faculty commitment and with creating technology infrastructure, particularly computer-generated data management systems, to facilitate assessment.

Participants brought several suggestions to their colleagues. Some of the tribal colleges and universities who exemplify best practices have dedicated positions to coordinate assessment. They also have developed realistic assessment goals rather than overwhelming plans that are too ambitious. Outcomes that reflect the unique role of TCUs in tribal communities and that integrate culturally relevant concepts into the assessment plan strengthen overall support for assessment in several TCUs. Institutional support for assessment creates a culture of assessment, including use of small incentives for faculty participation.

By sharing expertise within the tribal college system, we can resolve assessment dilemmas in the accreditation process and help one another succeed.

Venida S. Chenault, Ph.D. (Prairie Band Potawatomi/Kickapoo) is vice president for academic affairs at Haskell Indian Nations University.