David Gipp has been involved in the tribal college movement from the beginning and continues to play a vital role.
It is not surprising that David Gipp, Hunkpapa Lakota and member of the Standing Rock Indian Tribe, is considered by many to be the unofficial historian of tribal colleges and the tribal college movement. He was present at the beginning and continues to play a vital role in the national tribal college milieu.
Gipp has been president of the United Tribes Technical College, one of the first tribal colleges, in Bismarck, N.D. since 1977 and led the college to its initial accreditation in 1978. Six years earlier, Gipp became the first full-time executive director of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying, advocacy and research organization for tribal colleges. He quickly learned the ways of Capitol Hill and is regarded today as one of the best advocates of tribal colleges in Congress, according to the Tribal College Journal. He was also instrumental in developing the first national legislation that assists “tribally controlled community colleges and universities,” the main source of federal funding for the colleges. Gipp’s interest in education began when he was a political science student at the University of North Dakota. He noticed that many of his fellow American Indian students left the university without graduating. To stem this flow, he helped organize tutoring and counseling for Indian students and helped found the University of North Dakota Indian Association. In doing so, he gained a lasting empathy and appreciation for the struggles faced by Indian students. These experiences galvanized his lasting commitment to self-determination for American Indians.
“We must do for ourselves what no one else will do, and that is to take control of our own destinies by making our own decisions and taking action to improve our lives,” Gipp says.
Born in Ft. Yates, N.D., on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, his Indian name is Wicahpi Isnala Lone Star. Gipp began as a tribal planner for the tribe in the 1960s when he helped establish elementary schools on the reservation as well as what is now Sitting Bull College.
Gipp’s successes at UTTC are well known in the tribal college world. He has seen the college grow from an educational training facility, serving less than 100 students, to an institution that offers 14 associate degree programs to more than 1,000 students annually, including five associate degree programs online, and one baccalaureate program in cooperation with Sinte Gleska University.
