ABSTRACT
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) were created, in part, as a response to a series of failed federal policies. In the early twentieth century, the federal government controlled Tribal education, with schools focused on promoting White cultural practices and abandoning Tribal traditions and values. Recognizing the importance of preserving and growing the Nation’s Indigenous heritage, Tribal leaders called for an end to curricula driven by the desire to indoctrinate Native Americans into White middle-class values, and began a political movement of self-determination, part of which was establishing tribally run higher education institutions (Oppelt, 1990).
