Land-grant colleges and universities — institutions built using proceeds from the sale of lands taken from Indigenous tribes — are failing the very communities whose dispossession made them possible, according to a new report from the Education Trust released this month.
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The analysis, which examined Indigenous student enrollment, debt burdens, and campus experiences across the University of California system and land-grant institutions nationwide, found that Native students remain the most underrepresented racial or ethnic group in American higher education, even as the Trump administration moves to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that advocates say provide critical support to those students.
Only 25.4 percent of Indigenous students were enrolled in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 2021, compared with 65 percent of Asian students, 42.9 percent of white students, 35.9 percent of Black students, and 34.4 percent of Latino students, according to the report.
The findings carry particular weight given the origin of many land-grant institutions. Congress passed the Morrill Act of 1862, which established the first land-grant colleges, using proceeds from the sale of lands seized from Native tribes. Despite that foundational relationship, Indigenous students say they often feel invisible on those same campuses. Many land-grant institutions, the report notes, describe that land as "donated" or "leftover" — language the authors say "erases the violent histories of dispossession and lived experiences associated with it."
EdTrust researchers conducted in-depth interviews with six Native American and Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students across four UC campuses — UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, and UC Davis — and found three recurring themes: a profound lack of belonging, inadequate institutional support, and doubts about the economic value of their degrees.
Students described campuses where cultural ignorance from peers and professors alike was routine. "Some professors say very derogatory things," a UC Riverside student told researchers. "And they'll just be like, 'Oh well, we can say that because it's in history.' And I'm like, 'Well, you can't really say it now; you have to understand that it's still offensive.'"
The isolation ran deeper than individual interactions. "I have never had an Indigenous professor in any of my classes," one UCLA student said. A UC Davis student described the particular comfort of finding peers who share similar backgrounds: "There's just something about being surrounded by people who have, if not the same, similar life experiences as you, especially of being Native in America and what that looks like — finding solidarity."
