ABSTRACT
This chapter provides mainstream student affairs professionals with practical strategies and approaches on how to collaborate and partner with tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). Since the first TCUs emerged in the late 1960s, they have been engaged in collaborations with mainstream institutions. TCUs and mainstream university collaborations have several benefits, including sharing resources, increased access, sharing best practices for Native student success, and increased research opportunities. Sharing resources, information, ideas, and knowledge is one of the many benefits of collaboration. TCUs were designed to provide Native students access and pathways to higher education. One of the most subtle and dangerous barriers to TCU collaborations is the perception that TCUs are not as academically rigorous as or are of lesser quality than nontribal institutions. This negative perception can be traced back to the beginning of the tribal college movement when many people believed Indians could not run a college, let alone a quality college.
