ABSTRACT
From their inception, tribal colleges have been linked with mainstream institutions of higher education. Indeed, their very existence came about be-cause existing systems of higher education were failing large numbers of American Indian students. As Boyer (1997) noted:
Especially since [enactment of] the GI Bill and the Higher Education Act, the federal government, as well as individual colleges and universities, had encouraged Indian students to enroll. But as more did, it became clear that access did not guarantee academic success. The dropout rate for American Indians remained at 90 percent or higher at many institutions, (p. 25)
