More than 50 years of leadership service and development in the tribal college movement provides inspiration for emerging Indigenous education leaders. grounded in tribal self-determination, this body of knowledge informs both the practical application of leadership skills and abilities and the spiritual foundation on which tribal college leadership is predicated.

In recent years, many Native scholars and leaders explored leadership from an Indigenous perspective by situating it in place and within tribal values reflective of that place, with an understanding that for Native people, place and identity are entwined. Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) operate in a multifaceted web of social, educational, economic, and political conditions. This complexity contributes to tensions because the vision of tribally controlled education asserts tribal sovereignty, which is often contradictory to the ways that American educational practices are designed. To understand this complexity, we will explore the foundation of TCU leadership development, the vision of the movement’s founders, and the role of tribal values and self-determination.

FOUNDATIONAL VISION FOR TRIBAL COLLEGE LEADERS

Lionel Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota), the president of Sinte Gleska University since 1973, often recalls in public discussions the vision of the founders of the tribal college movement. He explains that they sought to revitalize Native languages and restore cultural norms and practices—a vision that we would describe today as tribal self-determination. In the context of tribally controlled colleges, universities, and modern tribal governments, tribal self-determination is both an act by a sovereign nation through its constitutional authority and the reinforcement of the inherent right of tribes to educate and socialize their own people. The tribal college movement emerged from that context and is the lens from which leadership can be explored. For tribal educators and college leaders, cultural norms and practices go beyond social and religious behaviors into the realms of political and economic systems, governance structure, and the restoration of familial and community relationships. The late Vine Deloria Jr., the renowned Dakota scholar and intellectual, recognized that Natives in the American education system were indoctrinated to approach governance and resource management in ways that diminish tribal authority and identity, particularly through federal policies. Tribal college founders sought leaders who saw through that indoctrination to create their own educational systems using traditional knowledges and ways of being as the source of social transformation. Today, our expectations of tribal college leaders are not only closely aligned with the founders’ vision but are a response to the need for increased tribal investment in restorative education.

Long-time educator Phil Baird (Sicangu Lakota) explored the succession of leadership among TCU presidents in Tradition and Culture in the Millennium with a focus on what leadership attributes future TCU presidents should possess. In addition to familiarity with Land-grant status, accreditation, institutional history, and other TCU characteristics, Baird emphasized the inherent necessity that presidents are rooted in place, possess a commitment to educating students in a manner that contributes to community, are “values oriented,” and have a strong sense of personal responsibility. These attributes contribute to the capability of TCU presidents to support tribal nation building.

In my essay, “Tribal Colleges and University Leaders: Warrior in Spirit and in Action,” I identified the TCU presidents’ roles as visionary, hunter/gatherer/grower, translator/interpreter, orator/advocate, warrior, and storyteller, focusing on how TCU presidents must center themselves in their people’s values and expectations. Such values and expectations serve as the framework or boundaries through which presidents make decisions and allocate resources. Those roles are a recognition that the beliefs and practices of tribal people are the heart of leadership in the tribal college movement. Each role is entwined with others to form a whole leadership framework.

For nearly 50 years, Lionel Bordeaux, president of Sinte Gleska University, has shined as a beacon of leadership, always reminding us what the tribal college movement is all about.

I further explored TCU leadership more broadly in the essay, “Leading from the Center: Indigenous Knowledge Builds Higher Education Leaders,” examining tribally controlled higher education as “a national movement toward cultural revitalization, economic prosperity, and healthy living.” While some might consider this focus to be aspirational, it has in practice been the way that TCUs accomplish their goals and is the way they are led. TCU leaders at all levels, including students, staff, and faculty, revitalize language and culture in daily life, incorporate cultural knowledge into curriculum and pedagogy, and strive for economic independence. As institutions, TCUs are leaders in the support of traditional family systems, food sovereignty, Indigenous early childhood education, Native teacher education, restoration of Native arts, and many other areas that are priorities for tribes and their citizens.

In the book, Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education, Cornel Pewewardy, a Comanche/Kiowa scholar, connects his perspective of being from a warrior tradition that values wisdom to his experiences and observations working in both tribal college settings and with mainstream institutions. He observes that an essential Indigenous leadership skill is to identify the distinctive ways that Indigenous people are different from non-Indigenous people in their philosophies, values, and customs. He emphasizes how the conquest mentality permeating Western society constructs identity, and how the development of tribal leadership requires knowledge and skills that confront that mentality and restore Indigenous perspectives and values.

Also, in the book Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education, Angela Brunner (Muscogee [Creek]) shares the teachings and symbols of her people and how they influence her leadership. Muscogee clans and their characteristics are the source of her learning—they taught her patience and how to live in an environment that is ambiguous, complex, and ever-changing. Her own clan, Fiswvlke (Bird Clan), taught her the importance of being a catalyst for change. She uses her people’s history of developing educational tools and resources as inspiration for keeping a Creek first reader nearby and connecting to a Muscogee basket as a visible representation of teamwork.

Phil Baird (Sicangu Lakota), a longtime tribal college educator, has examined key attributes of TCU leadership through his teaching and writing.

The challenges of walking in two worlds are frequently referenced throughout the study of TCU leadership and, indeed, Indigenous leadership more broadly. I am reminded of the teaching of scholar and elder Tom Sampson of Tsairtlip First Nations, with whom I had many interactions during my tenure as president of Northwest Indian College. From his way of knowing, he taught us the world that we live in is that of our own people. We cross a bridge into the world of non-Native people and do the work we need to do and then return home to our world. TCU leaders strive to navigate the world of American higher education, the structure of academic and vocational program design, the requirements for faculty qualifications, the expectations of accrediting bodies, all while trying to remain immersed in the living world of their people. That is a particularly difficult challenge for the on-going well-being and development of TCU leaders.

LESSONS LEARNED

To add to our frame of reference about supporting the development of higher education leaders, it is valuable to recall that support of tribal college leadership development has been available to interested TCU faculty and staff from the early days, including through partnerships with the Ford Foundation’s Institute for Tomorrow’s Generation of Leadership in the early 1990s, the Kellogg Foundation’s Alliance for Equity in Higher Education in the 2000s, and most recently the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. As tribal citizens move along the continuum of their administrative and executive development, maintaining persistent engagement is one of the challenges that has made leadership opportunities less accessible. From those decades of commitment to developing leaders, we can learn more about best practices that are resources for emerging and current TCU leaders.

Dr. Martha McLeod, a non-Native person who served as the founding president of Bay Mills Community College, explored Native leadership as part of her commitment to developing leadership programming for students. While reflecting on the ways that she was learning about leadership through her experiences and networking, she focused on Indigenous women’s leadership teaching.

Holding different positions at an institution fosters diverse leadership skills, a point that Martha McLeod, founding president of Bay Mills Community College, stressed throughout her career.

McLeod identified that a best practice for emerging leaders is to learn different roles by holding different jobs in the organization. My own experience at Sinte Gleska University, serving as faculty, department chair, planning officer for the Title III program, and then moving through various administrative roles including vice president of administration, gave me 17 years of foundational experience that I was able to transfer into executive-level roles.

McLeod’s research noted that among the key abilities of TCU leaders is to understand and affirm vision and mission and to be able to focus on “working for the people.” Janine Pease (Apsáalooke [Crow]), founding president of Little Big Horn College, shared in her essay, “Helps the People: The Dance of the Seasons (Ak bi li kkux she: Ash he’e lee taa li ssua): A Retrospective of Leadership,” that her life’s path of leadership development is analogous to the Apsáalooke peoples’ dance to celebrate the seasons held during their annual Crow Fair. She frames her experience around her peoples’ teaching, affirming their place in her vision. Chris Caldwell (Menominee), the newly appointed president of the College of Menominee Nation (CMN), expresses a vision rooted in his experience as director of CMN’s Sustainable Development Institute, which focuses on the “profound sense of place and relationship with the land.”

THE PATH FORWARD

Dr. Charles “Monty” Roessel (Diné), president of Diné College and the son of the founders of the college, Ruth and Bob Roessel, recently stated, “One of the things all tribal colleges have in common is the idea of nation building.” His remarks affirm the vision of the founders of the tribal college movement as he heard them firsthand from his parents.

Scholar and founding president of Little Big Horn College, Janine Pease has explored the connections between TCU leadership and traditional Apsáalooke lifeways.

To support this commonality, another critical leadership practice is creating professional development opportunities. In the tribal college movement, the establishment of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the membership organization of the TCUs, serves as a consistent mentoring vehicle for the development of new leaders and for updating the skills of longer-serving leaders. Not only has AIHEC provided opportunities for direct leadership development for presidents in partnership with minority-serving organizations and funders, but it also supports professional development programs as part of their board meetings and through networking, membership, and collaboration with other organizations such as the Association of Community College Trustees and the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities. All of this is collaborative nation-building that supports the presidents’ vision and the development of leaders.

In traditional tribal societies, young people are taught the skills they need for their societies to be well-functioning and prosperous through mentoring. From teaching young men how to hunt and fish and young women how to gather and preserve foods, to showing young people how to build homes, tribal societies passed on the skills necessary for survival. They also modelled problem solving, decision making, and resource allocation. In modern society, mentoring has become a way to introduce and support values-based behaviors as well as learning specific skills and abilities for the workplace. Formal and informal mentoring are used throughout the TCUs to train leaders. For example, AIHEC sponsors the AIHEC Student Congress, comprised of TCU students who learn from Native professionals, leaders, and each other through various activities, including the AIHEC Student Conference and Leadership Institute. Mentoring is an effective and personal way to broaden the reach of leadership support.

Through the AIHEC Student Congress, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium fosters student leadership and skills training.

Having mentors and advisors from within the tribal community is essential to the well-being and competency of emerging and current TCU leaders. Senior and executive leaders at TCUs are working in extremely challenging environments that are historical, complex, and dynamic. Access to community leaders and cultural informants grounds leaders in identity and promotes stronger ties between the TCUs and the people they serve. Many TCU leaders are responsible for ensuring that appropriate cultural and religious practices are observed at their institutions in support of their distinct missions as tribal institutions. Dr. Cynthia Lindquist (Spirit Lake Dakota), president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College, and Albert Red Bear (Oglala Lakota) affirm the value of connecting to identity in their essay, “Returning to Local Tribal Values: Think Dakota, Live Dakota.” They share tribal teachings and how those teachings and the ceremonies associated with them assert the wholeness of tribal life and relationships. Dakota teachings, moreover, inform Lindquist’s leadership practice at her institution.

Providing ways for TCU leaders (including emerging leaders) to offer their talents in other venues outside of their specific tribal college responsibilities increases satisfaction and brings broader networks and services to tribal communities. Serving on the commissions of regional accrediting agencies, on the boards of regional and national professional associations, and as advisors to public agencies gives TCU leaders the opportunity to increase the resources at their disposal. Attendance at professional conferences, whether hosted by organizations that support broad educational and social goals, such as the National Education Association, or by Native organizations, such as the National Indian Education Association or the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, serve to provide valuable networking and timely learning.

Developing a process to engage early with students and emerging leaders is also valuable to the growth and security of the tribal college movement. Programs such as the American Indian College Fund’s Student Ambassador Program and the previously mentioned AIHEC Student Congress provide knowledge about tribal education as students progress through their academic careers. This increases the likelihood that students and emerging leaders will choose a career path that leads to tribal college employment, an important goal in developing leadership.

Fostering experiences that enable students to give back to their communities also contributes to leadership development. According to the College Fund’s Gallup Report on Alumni of Tribal Colleges and Universities Better Their Communities (2019), 74% of TCU graduates are giving back to their communities through meaningful work in education, health, and other fields that are important to tribal well-being and prosperity. Internships, research projects, professional conferences, and networking all help students navigate their own leadership growth.

Leaders of the tribal college movement are also responsible for ensuring their institutions uphold principles of tribal self-determination. Our institutions offer a unique and distinctive approach to education not only through their cultural missions but also in how they interact with and engage community. AIHEC fosters tribal colleges’ missions through a range of services and programs. The College Fund, founded in 1989 by the TCU presidents, supports tribal colleges through student scholarship support and capacity-building activities.

Of the current 35 accredited members of AIHEC, 29 are tribally chartered, post-secondary education institutions. Two are incorporated by tribes and were initially established as workforce training entities but have since grown their programming. The other institutions serving predominantly Native students include two Bureau of Indian Education schools, one federally chartered institution, and a tribal college with a unique history and affiliation with a state institution.

Today, there are more than 3,000 higher education institutions in the United States, only 29 of which are chartered by sovereign tribal nations. Their charters uphold tribal authority and self-determination and therefore must be at the forefront of our leaders’ decision making. TCUs are unique in their formation, in who they serve, and in how they interface with their communities. Foremost, they are place-based institutions where students bring their unique identities and knowledge to the classroom and where the incorporation of cultural identity and practices in daily college life are the norm. Helping emerging TCU leaders understand that uniqueness through learning opportunities, dialogue with other TCU leaders, and study groups are accessible approaches to affirming tribal self-determination through tribal college education.

Cynthia Lindquist, president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College, has stressed the importance of the spiritual foundation of tribal colleges and rooting leadership in traditional values.

Because tribal self-determination is inseparable from identity, and tribal identity is inseparable from spirituality and kinship, TCU leaders can emerge from a calling to lead. It is no surprise in tribal communities when an individual indicates that there are spiritual components to the leadership path. President Lionel Bordeaux has often shared that he was told that his role as leader of Sinte Gleska University was foretold in a tribal ceremony and affirmed by prayer. President Cynthia Lindquist has said she was called by her elders to return to Spirit Lake and serve at Cankdeska Cikana Community College, whereupon she prayed for guidance to the ancestors in whose name the college was founded. As tribal citizens, TCU presidents practice the traditional teachings and ways of their tribes and the tribes they serve. When I, a Sicangu Lakota woman, served as president of Northwest Indian College, which was founded by the Lummi Nation to serve primarily Coast Salish people, I honored their teachings and sought their advice and guidance on matters of significance to their cultural understanding and needs.

REMAINING RESILIENT

The last 18 months have been particularly challenging for tribal college communities. The pandemic has ravaged family life and cultural practices. It has caused incredible damage to community and individual well-being. But today, TCU leaders demonstrate the desired practices and behaviors of tribal leaders. They have remained mission focused and resilient. Although they are solution oriented, they are supportive of the time that students and community members need to process their situations before solutions are implemented. Despite the incredible challenges they face, today’s TCU leaders find ways to be present in their service. The lessons learned in the last 50 years—that we as tribal college leaders can thrive using our traditional knowledge and kinship along with our ability to navigate complexities—have served us in a time of extraordinary crisis. We have every reason to expect our leaders to continue their path of supportive, creative practices and to continue to teach others the same.

Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota) is the president of the American Indian College Fund.

REFERENCES

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Weingarten, D. (2021, August 23). Tribal Colleges Honor Students Past, Prepare Them for Future. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2021/0823/Tribal-collegeshonor- students-past-prepare-them-for-future