"THE END OF OUR TRAIL." Sculpture by Marty Two Bulls, Jr. Photo courtesy of IAIA.

In the atrium of the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City sits a larger-than-life statue of an Indian warrior astride a horse. Both man and beast have heads bowed low, as if pushing against a strong wind. A long spear points to the ground, ready to drop from the warrior’s right hand.

There is an unmistakable air of exhaustion and resignation – “a 19th century Indian warrior defeated and bound for oblivion – frozen in time,” is how Cherokee scholar R. David Edmunds characterizes the scene.

“End of the Trail” by James Earle Fraser is one of the most immediately recognizable portrayals of an American Indian in American art. When completed in 1915, it reflected a widely held belief that Native Americans were very much a people of the past, “a vanishing race with no place in the 20th century,” Edmunds wrote for a statement that accompanies the museum exhibit.

But faculty and students at the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM, disagree. This past fall, the Indian-governed arts college invited Native artists from across the country to submit works reinterpreting this iconic image. The exhibit, titled “End of What Trail?,” highlights not defeat but the vitality of Indian culture in the 21st century.

It’s a vision that also guides the work of IAIA and several other intertribal colleges and universities across the United States, including Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, NM; United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND; and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS.

The oldest intertribal college was created in the era of assimilation when it was believed that Indian societies were, like Frazer’s warrior, doomed to extinction. Haskell was established in 1884, during the era of westward expansion when tribes faced an uncertain future. At that time, education was expected to train Indians for life in mainstream society. Native culture was purposefully ignored, and languages were suppressed.

But along the way, a remarkable change took place. Over time, Haskell was slowly transformed by students, faculty, and Native American administrators. Its new mandate is like that of other tribal and intertribal colleges – to strengthen, not destroy, Native cultures and give Indian students the skills they need to serve their tribal nations. Since the late 1960s, especially, these colleges have, like the plaster sculpture on display in Oklahoma City, been reinterpreted by Native peoples and dedicated to a new, more hopeful purpose.

Reflect Which Culture?

Of the 37 tribal colleges and universities in the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, 33 are tribally controlled – located on Indian land and chartered by tribes. In governance and funding, the four intertribal colleges differ from tribally-controlled colleges. IAIA, for example, is chartered by Congress, not a tribe. In their educational goals, they are much like their tribal college counterparts: Their vision is to not only train students for employment but also strengthen tribal cultures and, ultimately, advance tribes as sovereign nations.

IAIA TRIBAL COLLEGE PRESIDENT. Dr. Robert Martin and Luci Tapahonso, his wife, at his inauguration. Photo by Johyn Villani.

However, the task of reflecting and strengthening culture is more challenging at an intertribal college, concedes IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee). Although new to his position at IAIA, Martin has long experience in American Indian higher education. He served as president of Haskell Indian Nations University from 1989 to 1999 and was president of Tohono O’odham College, a tribally-controlled college in southern Arizona, from 2001 to 2005.

Most tribal colleges were created to serve one reservation and are able to focus on the culture of the immediate community, Martin says. At Tohono O’odam, for example, “our mission was to incorporate Himdag, which is their culture – the way of their people – into everything we did at the college, including the academic program, administration, buildings, landscaping – everything.” However, IAIA welcomes students from across the country and even overseas. Martin says 75 different tribes are currently represented on the IAIA campus – each with its own history, traditions, values, and language.

In this climate of diversity, what does it mean to be “culturally based”? Is it possible to reflect cultural values in an authentic and meaningful way? Although methods differ from their tribal college counterparts, staff and students at IAIA believe they are finding ways to reflect culture on campus and strengthen cultural knowledge of their students.

The first step is to build consensus within a college that culture does, in fact, matter. Most faculty and staff now say that culture is important, but this awareness grew over time. Intertribal colleges were founded as vocational institutions where job training was the priority. In the past, some questioned the importance of culture simply because it didn’t appear to have practical value.

When he was president of Haskell Indian Nations University in the 1990s, for example, some Native American board members questioned Martin when he proposed adding a degree program in American Indian studies. “They said, ‘On our reservations, we need teachers, we need lawyers, we need social workers. We need economic development,’” Martin recalls. “But our response was that with our mission to incorporate culture into all of our programs, we really needed the American Indian Studies program to do that.”

Today, Haskell and other intertribal colleges all offer cultural courses and degrees in Native American studies. At IAIA, for example, students can major in Indigenous Liberal Studies, a unique interdisciplinary degree that examines the natural sciences, social sciences, fine arts, traditional arts, and humanities from a Native American perspective. Internships and fieldwork deepen classroom-based instruction.

Degrees in Indian studies are now an important part of the college’s curriculum. However, the next challenge is to incorporate culture beyond courses in an American Indian studies program. Like their tribal college counterparts, intertribal colleges are continually looking for ways to “Indianize” their institutions. They want to reflect cultural values in all courses and across campus. This is a difficult task for all Indian colleges but is a greater challenge for institutions that serve so many different cultures.

Respect, Honor, Community

One approach is to focus on shared culturally-based values. That’s the approach advocated by IAIA student Karl Duncan (San Carlos Apache, Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan), who will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in museum studies and also serves as president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s Student Congress.

As a leader on campus and throughout the tribal college movement, he sees many commonalities. “I don’t think anyone would disagree with respecting each other,” he says. “I don’t think anyone would disagree with honoring elders. I don’t think anyone would disagree with honoring our past.”

“I try to focus on the positive values all Native American tribes have,” he says. And by building on these core values, intertribal colleges are able to offer cultural experiences that all students can embrace. At IAIA, for example, the school year began with a blessing of the campus by a Navajo medicine man, says Martin.

In addition, the college sponsors a pow-wow club, maintains a sweat lodge, and holds workshops for students interested in traditional Native American arts – such as pottery and basket weaving – that are not part of the college’s contemporary arts curriculum.

All this helps strengthen a sense of identity – especially for students who are unfamiliar with their own heritage. Intertribal colleges enroll many “urban Indians” – Native Americans who do not live on reservations. For some, enrollment in an intertribal college is their first opportunity to live with other Indians and directly experience Native American cultures.

“Being here, I realize it’s a Native American community,” says IAIA Facilities Coordinator Alvin Sandoval (Navajo). A 17-year employee of the college, Sandoval has seen the college grow and change. He is also recognized as a cultural leader on campus. He believes that for students, IAIA is much more than a college.

“Sometimes urban Indians go off their reservation to work in cities. They’re away from their home. But in the cities there are Indian centers, cultural centers.” For Sandoval, IAIA plays the same role as these centers. Both provide social support and a sense of belonging. “When they come here, it’s like a community,” he says, “a community based on the fine arts.”

Especially valuable to IAIA is the creative energy that emerges in this diverse climate. Set in a scenic desert setting outside the city of Santa Fe, studios are filled with works in progress and the odor of turpentine. Students, many in regulation artist attire of torn and paint-spattered clothes, walk across a tasteful, modern campus that nonetheless captures both the spirit of the desert and Native traditions.

College leaders acknowledge that they cannot teach about every culture represented in the study body. Courses in the anthropology sequence, for example, generally focus on regions, not individual tribes. “Tribal Nations of the Plains” and “Tribal Peoples of the Southwest” are typical course offerings. Likewise, Navajo is the only language listed in the course catalog.

However, unique histories and traditions of individual tribes are still respected, according to staff and students. Some of this comes out in friendly banter, Duncan says. “All tribes have their differences. We see it as a joke: ‘My tribe fought your tribe.’ That sort of thing. Well, I’m Apache, so we were enemies with everybody.”

But this diversity also creates a unique opportunity for learning, according to Martin. It’s “a resource we can tap into,” he says. “We may be teaching a course in ‘tribal history’ or ‘tribal culture’, but when you have 15 different tribes represented in the classroom, you can design your teaching methods and curriculum to tap into that resource.” When diversity is acknowledged, students become teachers and can learn from each other’s experiences.

At IAIA, diversity is also reflected in the creative process. Students are encouraged to find their own voices, not just create generic “Indian art,” according to Sandoval. “Being intertribal is like we’re sharing our different tribal ways,” he says. “In their own ways they’re depicting where they came from.”

At the same time, administrators want to do even more. All intertribal colleges are looking for ways to more fully integrate culture in the curriculum and build even stronger connections to tribal communities. President Martin would like to establish a visiting elders program, for example. He is also discussing with faculty and staff members the possible development of a college-wide cultural committee to oversee the integration of culture.

Another approach is to deepen connections to Native communities and Native organizations. IAIA, for example, is continuing its development of a lifelong learning institute, called the Achein Center, which will offer courses and workshops tailored to the needs of tribal groups, both around the world and in the Santa Fe region. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this new center supports tribal development through programs in the arts, economic development, heath and wellness, governance, and technology, among other areas of concern. This program links the college – and its students – to Native communities in real and meaningful ways.

In the end, what matters most is the commitment students feel to serving their own communities. Not all graduates return to reservations, of course, nor should they be expected to. But most believe they are part of what many call the renaissance of Native societies. Whether they work as computer programmers or artists, graduates of intertribal colleges tend to feel committed to serving this larger cause.

For his part, Karl Duncan hopes to bring his skills back to his community or another tribe and help start a museum or develop new exhibits that recognize the vitality of contemporary Indian societies. “I hope my tribe or other tribes would want to take advantage of that. There are lots of ideas coming from the college,” he says.

Paul Boyer is the founding editor of TCJ and a frequent contributor to the journal. He is currently completing a report on the role tribal colleges play in community development.