Lately, a lot of folks have been troubled, even disturbed, by recent political events. It’s true that we’ve never had a major political party nominate a presidential candidate indicted for scores of felonies (and to be clear that prospect is very troubling and deeply disturbing), but to think that today is worse than anything we’ve experienced in the past is, well, ludicrous. One only needs to take a cursory glance at what Native people faced in the mid-twentieth century to confirm this.

Buoyed by a wave of postwar civic nationalism, the election of 1946 saw conservatives take control of both the House and Senate. Almost immediately they targeted the policies and programs of the previous decade that had been central to the New Deal. Virtually no one escaped their sights and American Indians were no exception. House Concurrent Resolution 108 codified what lawmakers called “termination,” wherein the federal government would begin to eliminate its services and the trust status of Native nations in an effort to cut spending and to integrate American Indians into mainstream society. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs encouraged Native people to leave their tribal communities for a smattering of cities around the country. In theory, the Voluntary Relocation Program provided travel and assistance to Indian families transitioning to urban life. To further incentivize relocation, Congress passed Public Law 959, which launched a vocational training program that would give participants the skills to find jobs in their new metropolitan environment. The Indian Vocational Training Act of 1957 further authorized funds for job training centers in 26 states that taught over 125 trades. Training lasted two years and often followed an apprentice-mentor model, enabling participants to find new jobs once they completed the program.

By 1973, over 100,000 Native people had relocated to cities such as Chicago, Los Angles, Denver, San Franciso, Oakland, Cleveland, Dallas, St. Louis, and Tulsa, with a large number participating in the vocational training program. Many tribal councils worked with the BIA to improve relocation services and, to be sure, many people transitioned to city life successfully, gaining new skills and finding decent jobs. But many others found the transition difficult, even nightmarish. In leaving their rural homelands for the asphalt jungle, they substituted a relaxed rhythm of life for hectic bustle and relentless traffic, tranquility for tension, quietude for noise, community for anonymity. One 25-year-old who relocated to Chicago reported, “I’m glad to learn a trade, but I sure don’t like the city . . . People are different here—even the Indians. They don’t talk to you.”

Aggravating matters, the economic recession of 1956-1957 led to layoffs and a scarcity of new jobs. Many of those who had relocated to cities were suddenly unemployed and out of luck. Some eked out an existence in low wage jobs, others wound up homeless or in slum housing. One young woman recalling the tough times remembered that “mothers had to stay awake nights and fight off the rats to keep them from biting their children.” Alcoholism, delinquency, crime, strained marital relations and spousal abuse, mental illness, and suicide all became a blight on the relocation experience.

Meanwhile reservations remained underdeveloped. Relocation led to a brain drain whereby many of the best qualified and most talented tribal members departed for cities hundreds of miles from home. As Shawnee historian Donald Fixico observes, “unfortunately, those tribal members possessing the best qualifications and who could probably have provided a more effective leadership, were apt to relocate; and after relocation, they rarely returned to the reservation to help their tribes.”

Beginning in the 1960s, with the rise of a new spirit of self-determination, Native nations took steps to address the ongoing problem of relocation. Tribal leaders recognized that vocational training was essential but rather than lose those skilled workers to the cities, they sought to develop their own career and technical education (CTE) training right at home. Founded in 1969, the United Tribes Employment Training Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, for example, offered an array of certification programs, but also incentives for new students and their families, providing housing, an elementary school, and a childcare center. Tribal colleges and universities became central to this concerted effort, elevating career and technical education as a central facet of their overall mission. As the late president of Stone Child College, Dr. Nate St. Pierre, stated, “The success of Indian vocational training programs is linked to the economic health of Indian communities. Students’ potential is developed in a culturally relevant, practical way to build a skilled labor pool.”

This edition of Tribal College Journal focuses on these programs and how they are uplifting and strengthening Native nations. Veteran journalist and longtime Winds of Change editor, Barbara Ellen Sorensen, kicks off the issue with the feature article, “Preparation for Life.” Sorensen investigates some of the common themes that link CTE programming across all TCUs, including filling community needs and building more resilient tribal economies. Sorensen also explores more closely how Indigenous ways of knowing inform CTE at tribal colleges. Only at America’s TCUs do elders and knowledge holders play a role in CTE courses, making what many see as nuts-and-bolts curriculum holistic, community oriented, and culturally relevant.

Among the oldest and most well-established tribal colleges are North Dakota’s TCUs, which have been leaders in CTE since their inception. Melody Volk of Cankdeska Cikana Community College highlights the array of programs, various degree offerings, and experimental apprenticeship and internship opportunities that make CCCC a “steppingstone to the future.” Find out more on page 28.

To the northwest, nestled just south of the Canadian border, Turtle Mountain Community College likewise offers myriad CTE opportunities, serving as a “catalyst for community change.” Renowned author Chelsey Luger highlights intergenerational student success stories and how TMCC is responding to community needs. “Evidence today has proved that CTE programs are often the most viable and direct avenues toward competitive salaries, robust job opportunities, and limitless career growth,” Luger writes.

As evidenced by these stories—and those of countless tribal college CTE graduates—Native nations have come a long way since the days of relocation. And at the center of it all are tribal colleges and universities. Today, TCUs are preparing the workers who are the backbone of Native nations.

Bradley Shreve, PhD, is editor of Tribal College Journal.

REFERENCES

Fixico, D.L. (1986). Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

St. Pierre, N. (1997-1998). Strengthening Tribal Nations Through Vocational Education. Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education, 9(3), 16-18.

Waddell, J.O., & Watson, O.M. (1971). The American Indian in Urban Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.