Investing in Tribal Colleges Benefits Us All

ICheryl Crazy Bulln these continually changing times, the American Indian College Fund maintains our commitment to and focus on ensuring Native students can continue to access higher education. The College Fund’s mission is to provide financial support for Native students to access higher education and programs for them to succeed once they are in college, such as leadership programs, support for college transfer students, and internships. Our work also includes providing financial and program support for the thirty-four accredited tribal colleges and universities across the country, most of which are located on or near Indian reservations.

The higher education community has seen a barrage of proposed new federal policies with the current administration, including an announcement earlier this year of the possibility of drastic funding cuts targeting tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). This raised concerns about the survival of these remarkable institutions.

The TCU movement was born nearly 60 years ago. Rooted in Indigenous values and chartered by their respective Tribal Nations or the federal government, TCUs operate in some of the most rural parts of the United States, giving over 160,000 American Indian, Alaska Native, and rural residents each year valuable education opportunities and their communities needed services, economic growth, and spurring job creation.

Thankfully, tribal college and university funding is intact due to bipartisan Congressional support. The Trump administration recently announced an increased investment in Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). This one-time allocation for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 is a welcome new precedent in increased investment in TCUs.

TCUs differ from other higher education institutions in that federal support upholds the government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations. These federal dollars are not just an investment in Indian Country; they create benefits for every taxpayer. TCUs expand broad participation in education and provide opportunities for graduates to contribute to their local economies and succeed. This additional funding is an acknowledgement of TCUs’ contributions as centers for culturally based learning, job preparation, and collaboration.

Even without the advantage of large endowments and little funding support from states where they are located, TCUs create a multiplying economic effect throughout the country. In FY 2022-2023 alone, TCUs generated $3.8 billion in economic growth for the United States — supporting 40,700 jobs and community improvement for all, according to a study released in September 2025 by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). In addition, a TCU alumni survey conducted in 2019 by the College Fund shows over 75% of TCU alumni use their degrees to give back to their communities in important fields such as healthcare, business, law enforcement, the sciences, and more.

Our institutions do not just change communities and economies, they change lives. The late Charles “Monty” Roessel, former President of Diné College, shared he saw a young homeless couple every day at a gas station on the Navajo reservation, where they bathed their daughter in the restroom to prepare her for school. Roessel offered the couple the opportunity to enroll in classes and live in the family dorms at the college. The next day the parents were enrolled, studying for a better future. They had a safe place to live, enjoyed nutritious meals in the dining hall, and had a real chance for a better future. That family is just one of thousands that TCUs have touched.

My own family is an example of the power of a TCU education. I grew up on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Since 1981, I have had the honor of being part of the tribal college movement. I have served as a teacher, a tribal college president at Northwest Indian College in Washington, and I have served as the president of the American Indian College Fund since 2013. My sister, a master teacher in mathematics, was a TCU graduate. My grandchildren attend TCUs. TCUs provided my family members with a good living and an opportunity to do meaningful, service-oriented work.

The College Fund recognizes dollars were shifted from other federal programs for this funding increase. As we welcome this investment in Native higher education, we urge an ongoing commitment to TCU education at all levels of government and encourage future policies to ensure educational programs are available for every student who relies on support to access a higher education wherever they study. We know every child in our nation is our future.

To learn more about the impact of TCUs and their graduates, read the National Tribal Colleges and Universities Economic Impact Report at aihec.org.

_________

Cheryl Crazy Bull is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation from Rosebud, South Dakota, and is the president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund.