ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the complicated issue of Indigenous role models in higher education. It describes role models as Indigenous, tenure-track, or tenured faculty members at non-Native colleges and universities (NNCUs). An Indigenous role model on an NNCU campus can be defined in ways that further colonization, such as ignoring Indigenous Knowledge Systems in favor of mainstream dominant ones. Increasing the numbers of faculty of color is an ongoing challenge for higher education institutions. Indigenous students must see and interact with Indigenous faculty on campus to introduce them to the possibility of becoming future faculty members. Uncollegial behavior by colleagues of all colors comes in many shapes and forms and at various department levels. Even stories of intertribal racism exist within higher education. To resist assimilation into urban communities, many Indigenous Peoples created Indigenous enclaves and diasporic identities. Therefore, urban Indigenous identity may be in a transitional stage in the evolution of tribal identity.
