Expanding the Future of Tribal Education

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

Office of University

Partnerships

Tribal Colleges and

Universities Program

Tribal colleges and universities play avital role in some of the nation’s

poorest communities. They offer postsecondary educational opportunities, provide

a means to study and preserve traditional

languages and cultures, and offer job training and career opportunities for adults.

The schools also offer important services

to address chronic unemployment, poor

health conditions, and other problems

associated with social and economic

harshness. The U.S. Department of

Housing and Urban Development’s

(HUD’s) Office of University Partnerships

(OUP) offers grant opportunities for these

institutions of higher education to develop

new programs and enhance existing activities that help strengthen communities

served by the 32 federally recognized

Tribal Colleges and Universities in the

United States. 

“For far too long, Native Americans have

lacked quality health services, resulting in

increasing numbers of Native Americans

who endure a wide range of diseases and

illnesses,” states New Jersey Congressman

Frank Pallone, Jr. in a July 22, 2004,

speech on Native American health. 

Native Americans born today have a life

expectancy that is almost 6 years less than

the U.S. all-races population, according to

the U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services. With unemployment rates reaching 75 percent on some reservations, 

continued on page 2

individuals and families must postpone

nutrition and healthcare issues. The result

is unhealthy living conditions, a lack of

proper food and nutrition, increasing levels of diabetes, and high levels of alcoholism. OUP’s Tribal Colleges and

Universities Program provides grants to

tribal colleges to develop and administer a

broad range of programs and activities,

including initiatives that address chronic

health issues affecting Native Americans.

Tribal community colleges provide more

than academic opportunities, they also

assist with the social, cultural, and welfare

needs of the populations they serve. The

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

in Albuquerque, New Mexico, recently

developed a program designed to educate

Tribal Colleges Address Community Health Concerns

students and local residents about healthrelated issues, help them to reduce obesity,

improve their overall health status, reduce

their chances of developing diabetes, and

control already-diagnosed conditions.

Working in partnership with the school’s

Family Extension and Education Program,

and with additional financial assistance

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

this outreach program serves the health education needs of Native American families in

Albuquerque and throughout New Mexico. 

In Belcourt, North Dakota, the Turtle

Mountain Community College recently

developed the Anishinaubag Wellness

Center for residents of the Turtle Mountain

Chippewa Reservation in the north central

portion of the state. The center provides

educational resources about maintaining a

healthy lifestyle, offers information about

proper foods and nutrition, links the programs to the overall environment, and

highlights the traditional techniques specific to the Native American culture. The

school developed the center as a place to

hold community events and the annual

Turtle Mountain Wellness Conference. The

center is located on a 100-acre property

with a wooded campground and waterfront.

The design and setting encourage community members of all ages to learn about and

participate in wellness programs and

opportunities in a safe environment. The

new center is a pivotal feature of the

Access to quality healthcare

information that is specific to

the social and cultural situation within the reservation

community is helpful for individuals to address their own

health issues and develop

model behaviors for their

family, friends, and neighbors.
TCUP Central is a free publication prepared

by the University Partnerships Clearinghouse, the information service sponsored 

by HUD’s Office of University Partnerships

(OUP). TCUP Central highlights the contributions of TCUPs to local community efforts. You

may contact the University Partnerships

Clearinghouse at (800) 245-2691. See the

Office of University Partnerships 

on the World Wide Web at

http://www.oup.org.

2 / TCUP Central 

school’s enhancement to its current curricula in the areas of health, agriculture,

animal husbandry, environmental science,

Native American culture and herbology,

and computer science. 

“Educators in tribal college communities

on reservations and in urban areas know

many of their diseases and problems are

not inevitable, and they are beginning to

see evidence that they are not impossible

to overcome,” states Marjane Ambler in

Reclaiming Native Health. Access to quality healthcare information that is specific to

the social and cultural situation within the

reservation community is helpful for individuals to address their own health issues

and develop model behaviors for their

family, friends, and neighbors. Tribal colleges and universities combine traditional

practices with Western approaches to

address healthcare issues in their communities. Combining these techniques and

addressing the national or systemic problems prevalent on reservations can develop

new models of health education to be used

at the community level. ✣

Genetic and lifestyle factors have contributed to the creation of a diabetes epidemic among Native Americans, who are twice as likely to

develop the disease as members of other ethnic groups, according to the American

Diabetes Association (ADA). Complications from diabetes are now a major cause

of death and health problems within this population. 

In an effort to reduce the numbers of Native Americans afflicted with diabetes, the

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has

launched three initiatives that are educating SIPI students and local residents about

health-related issues. The programs are teaching Native Americans how to reduce

obesity, improve their overall health status, and reduce their chances of developing

diabetes. All of SIPI’s health-related initiatives will eventually be housed in a new

Child Care and Family Center being built on campus with funds from SIPI’s 2001

TCUP grant.

“The timing has been right to start these programs,” says Joan Goodman, coordinator for the college’s Seven Generations of Health program, which is developing 

community-based, health promotion programming. “You can hardly open a newspaper or newsletter that doesn’t have something on obesity and diabetes. The awareness is there that something needs to be done. We are fortunate because we can move

right into sharing prevention strategies.”

Diabetes Among Native Americans. Recent studies have shed new light on just

how devastating diabetes—and its complications—have been for Native American

populations. About 15 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives who receive

care from the Indian Health Service have been diagnosed with this chronic disease,

according to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse at the National

Institutes of Health. Regional diabetes rates among Native Americans range from

22.9 percent for Navajo adults aged 20 and older, to 27 percent for Native

Americans in the southeastern United States. Diabetes rates are as high as 50 percent among the Pima tribe of Arizona. Scientists at the National Institute of

Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases have identified a gene in the Pima

Indians that may play a role in insulin resistance. In addition, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are also major risk factors for type-2 diabetes (T2D), which most often

affects adults.

Health Concerns continued from page 1

Albuquerque College Focuses on Diabetes

Prevention, Health Promotion

continued on page 3

Health Fair display for Diabetes Prevention 
3 / TCUP Central 

Because diabetes can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, amputations, and blindness, SIPI takes it seriously, says Goodman. To

combat the disease, Goodman’s program—officially called Seven

Generations of Health: A Transgenerational Approach to Human

Nutrition and Obesity Interventions in Indian Country—is bringing

health-related messages and strategies for developing healthy

lifestyles directly to the community.

As part of a 4-year initiative, Goodman and her colleagues are

developing educational programs, newsletters, videotapes, and a

Web site dedicated to health-related topics. Seven Generations of

Health is also broadcasting health-related courses and workshops

by satellite to residents throughout the region. This outreach activity is being performed in cooperation with SIPI’s Family Extension

and Education Program (FEEP), an educational program funded by

the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which serves Native American

families in Albuquerque and 25 tribal communities. FEEP will be

housed in the TCUP-funded family center when it opens. 

“Distance education is a very important way to reach the Indian

community,” says Goodman. “For example, one of our target

areas is 265 miles, round trip, from SIPI. By transmitting presentations through satellite, more communities and people benefit.”

Locally, the Seven Generations of Health program will establish

Healthy Lifestyle Clubs in four communities. Peer educators will

facilitate the clubs by helping local residents decide what type of

healthy activity they would like to pursue and then helping those

residents form clubs around the activity.

“These trained community residents will go out into the community and help others develop healthy lifestyles,” says Goodman.

“By using the club model, you have more community buy-in

since the community makes the decision about what it wants to do

in the areas of nutrition and increased activity.” One community

may decide to establish an aerobics club, says Goodman. Another

may opt for a cooking, line dancing, or walking club. 

Goodman hopes that having peers lead the clubs will encourage

local residents to join and ensure that the clubs can eventually

operate independently of SIPI and its funding sources. “This way,

if the funding disappears, the benefits won’t disappear,” she says. 

Preventing Diabetes. Two other SIPI health initiatives are focusing on the development of health-related curricula for a variety of

student audiences. Through the Diabetes Based Science Education

in Tribal Schools (DETS) program, for example, SIPI and seven

other colleges are using funds from the National Institutes of

Health to develop a curriculum about diabetes for middle and high

school students. The curriculum, which SIPI will pilot test in four

local schools during Fall 2004, has a dual purpose. The course

work is designed to help youngsters and teenagers understand the

science, social, and community aspects of T2D. In addition,

developers hope the curriculum will raise interest in science

among young students and encourage them to pursue careers in

health and the sciences. 

“We also have a curriculum in nonscience areas, including

health, physical education, and language arts,” says Carol Maller,

coordinator of SIPI’s Diabetes Prevention Program. “We wanted

to make sure that we were not missing anyone. The overall message is making healthy choices by choosing what you eat and

getting exercise.”

SIPI’s third health-related initiative—the Diabetes Preventive

Initiative—is focusing on the educational needs of SIPI students.

The planning grant, sponsored by the American Indian Higher

Education Consortium and the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, is helping SIPI take a look at its own student population so it can put a health curriculum in place “that educates students so they can take the message back to their community once

they leave college,” says Goodman. One component of the project

will examine the efficacy of establishing an associate degree/certificate program at SIPI that would prepare students for careers in

recreation, fitness, health promotion, and wellness. The National

Diabetes Prevention Centers and the National Center for Chronic

Disease Prevention and Health Promotion are also participating in

the project.

Working with the Community. Community input—in the 

form of focus groups—has been crucial to the curriculum development process, says Maller. In addition, all of SIPI’s new curricula

are culturally sensitive so that Native Americans can relate to 

them easily. 

“We are reaching out into the tribal community and looking at

ways to change behavior,” says Goodman. “We are not there to tell

them what they are doing wrong. We are helping the people design

the programs that best meet their needs. It may be tempting to go

into a community and say everyone needs to have bicycles, but no

one may want to use those bicycles. Instead, you have to help them

figure out how to best change their lifestyles to achieve healthy

eating and activity. One of the main things you need is patience.”

For more information, contact Joan Goodman at (505) 346–7709

and jgoodman@sipi.bia.edu or Carol Maller at (505) 259–4729

and cmaller@sipi.bia.edu. ✣

Display at Diabetes Awareness Walk at SIPI

Diabetes continued from page 2
Cityscape Highlights 

Doctoral Dissertation

Research Grant Program

The upcoming issue of Cityscape, a

journal of policy development and

research, showcases research by

scholars in the Office of University

Partnership’s Doctoral Dissertation

Research Grant (DDRG) program. 

Cityscape, published by HUD’s

office of Policy Development and

Research, promotes research in the

field of housing policy and other

housing-related issues. This special

issue highlights the DDRG program and its housing-related

research through topics such as:

* “Neighborhood Jump-Starting: A

Los Angeles Case Study.”

* “Valuation of Metropolitan

Quality of Life in Wages and

Rents.”

* “Positive Attitudes, Behavior, and

Neighborhood Ties in Poor

Urban Neighborhoods: The

Impact of Neighborhood

Poverty, Household Economics,

and Demographic Variables.”

* “Moving Over or Moving Up?

Short-term Gains and Losses for

Relocated HOPE VI Families.”

* “Aging in Place in Multifamily

Housing.”

* “The Work of Cities:

Underemployment and Urban

Change in Late Century

America.”

* “The Struggle for Housing

Equality: The Impact of Fair

Housing and Community

Reinvestment Laws on Local

Advocacy.”

* “Knowledge Production and Use

in Community-based

Organizations: Examining the

Impacts and Influence of

Information Technologies.”

To order a free copy of this 

special issue of Cityscape (Volume 7,

Issue 1) contact the University

Partnerships Clearinghouse at 

1 (800) 245-2691, option 1. 

4 / TCUP Central 

Tribal Colleges and Universities

Program (TCUP) grantees, Fiscal

Year 2004 grantees will use their

funds to construct new facilities and

expand and equip existing facilities.

The following profiles summarize

the types of activities that the 2004

grantees will undertake:

Stone Child College, Box Elder,

Montana, will use its $600,000

TCUP grant to construct a new

health and physical education facility, which will allow the university to

add six new health and physical

education courses. As a direct result

of this project, students will have a

facility that is appropriate in size and

design to support future growth and

expansion of the institution’s health

and physical education curriculum.

The design for this proposed facility

has been completed. 

Cankdeska Cikana Community

College, Fort Totten, North Dakota,

will use its $600,000 TCUP grant to

construct a 4,500-square-foot addition to the college campus. The new

addition will house an administrative

office area and allow the college to

regain two classrooms that 

are now being used as office space. 

As a result of this effort, the college 

will be able to increase its instructional capabilities, impact the services provided to students, and increase

student enrollment. The new addition will also allow the college to

move the main electrical entry from

its current location in the boiler

room, which is a hot, moist area that

poses a significant safety hazard. 

Si Tanka University, Eagle Butte,

South Dakota, will use its $587,960

TCUP grant to construct and equip

a Library Learning Center to serve

as the information hub to support

and enrich the curricula, programs,

and activities of the university, the

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and

the community; and to replace

dilapidated windows and add air

conditioning in two dormitories.

College of Menominee Nation,

Keshena, Wisconsin, will use its

$594,340 TCUP grant to develop

additional classroom space for academic preparation, and training and

economic development activities.

The construction will consist of a

three-story, 7,368-square-foot addition to Shirley Daly Hall’s science

wing. This new space will provide

four additional classrooms and

future expansion space for the college faculty. Additional classroom

space is one of the college’s highest

and immediate priorities. 

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community

College, Hayward, Wisconsin, will use

its $600,000 TCUP grant to expand

the college library. Library patrons,

college employees, an external evaluator, and the Higher Learning

Commission of the North Central

Association of Colleges and Schools

accreditation team have identified

the need for a new library facility.

The college library is chartered and

recognized by the State of

Wisconsin as a public library serving

the greater Lac Courte Oreilles community. Currently the library is

2,500 square feet and the collection

has exceeded the capacity of the

space, causing older books to be

placed in storage to make room for

new acquisitions. With the support

of this grant, the college will achieve

the following goals: renovate 3,000

square feet of existing campus space

to accommodate the relocation of

staff and program offices; raze an

unhealthy, existing campus building

to make room for new library construction; and add 2,000 square feet

to the new library.

Tribal Colleges and Universities Program 

2004 Grantees 
T urtle Mountain Community College

(TMCC) has allocated recently

acquired grants from the U.S. Department

of Housing and Urban Development

(HUD) and the U.S. Department of

Agriculture (USDA) to providing cultural

and health awareness to the Native

American community of Belcourt, North

Dakota. By establishing the Anishinabe

Cultural and Wellness Center, on the site of

a former Lutheran retreat camp, TMCC is

joining the community’s young and old to

promote healthy living and preserve the

traditions of their Native American culture. 

According to Lyle Poitra, TMCC’s institutional development research specialist, the

project began when the Eastern Lutheran

Synod of North Dakota offered its former

retreat to TMCC. The college purchased the

former Lutheran retreat camp in April 2002

with funds from a 2001–03 TCUP grant.

Poitra and his staff wanted the facility’s

focus to be on the cultural and physical

health of young and old residents within the

Belcourt community. TMCC combined the

remainder of its TCUP grant with funds

received from USDA and began renovating

the retreat’s former administration building.

This became the Anishinabe Center’s main

building where it now holds health-related

workshops that incorporate standard medical practices with Native American practices. Workshops on how to deal with

substance abuse and violence, high blood

pressure, and other topics are offered in 

tandem with workshops on more traditional

holistic practices such as preserving fruits

and vegetables naturally and preparing different types of jerky. 

In addition, the center pairs youth volunteers with elders from the Turtle Mountain

Retirement Home, who teach them how to

cook using traditional methods and ingredients and how to use herbs from the retirement home’s community garden, which

TMCC planted at the home. Such mentoring ensures the continuation of cultural

culinary customs and promotes healthier

eating habits for a people often beset by

chronic illnesses such as diabetes. 

TMCC also invested a large portion of its

money into preparing part of the former

retreat’s more than 100 acres for a community garden at the center, which provides

reconnection with cultural medicinal and

meditative practices. Mark Hamley, the

USDA’s extension coordinator and TMCC’s

special events coordinator, explains that the

garden is helping to reestablish traditional

herbs, natural grasses, and flowers to the

area. “Anishinabe has been visited by more

than 500 students over this summer,” says

Hamley. “It’s a beautiful area and it’s amazing that so many kids are willing to come

here.” Visitors hike the trails and learn

about the gardens and the classes offered at

the center. 

Hamley is currently working with student

and community volunteers to plant a traditional medicine wheel garden. “Each corner

5 / TCUP Central 

TCUP Grantee Promotes Health and Cultural Awareness

Two views of the cultural center and the pristine lake it overlooks.

[of the garden] requires special rituals to

make it authentic,” explains Hamley. By

pairing college students with the elders

from the community, this project serves as

a means to pass along traditional horticultural knowledge to the younger tribal generation. Hamley also notes, “Once it is

completed, the medicine wheel garden will

be a wonderful place [for center visitors]

to go to meditate.” 

As special events coordinator, Hamley

helped Anishinabe become the site of the

first National Youth Sports Program

(NYSP) sponsored by a tribal college.

NYSP, a national nonprofit that organizes

recreational and educational activities for

young people, drew children to the center

for basketball, volleyball, flag football,

biking, canoeing, and many other activities. NYSP also gave seminars on substance abuse prevention and healthy eating

habits, among other wellness-centered topics. Hamley says that more than 200 children from the surrounding communities

came to Anishinabe to participate in this

summer’s NYSP. 

Anishinabe is also home to TMCC’s Youth

Leadership Project. Students from the 

college learn how to perform culturally

significant activities, such as drumming,

singing, and traditional storytelling. More

than 60 students participated in this summer’s project. 

continued on page 6
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The college won another TCUP grant for 2003–05 when it decided to use the funding to

replace the camp’s deteriorating water and sewer lines, which were detrimental to the

surrounding environment and limited the growth of the center. Poitra explains that connecting the center to the main water and sewer lines “will be the capstone for future

development.” Planned development includes adding another cabin to the property,

which will provide sleeping space for students attending future retreats as well as for

visiting presenters. 

Both Poitra and Hamley say the community has come together to support Anishinabe’s

efforts. Many people in the community are amazed by the center’s achievements, says

Poitra. However, they welcome the center’s contributions and some have even made

gifts of appreciation. One local resident donated land to the center, which Poitra says, is

ideal for rice crops and allows him and his staff to give demonstrations on how to grow

and harvest rice. 

TMCC continues to use its grants to their fullest potential. The college looks forward to

expanding on the center’s many activities that are already popular with the community.

The hope is that through continued education the center will provide a haven for cultural and health education for the surrounding tribal community. Poitra expresses deep

gratitude for the funding that TMCC has received from HUD’s TCUP grants. “The

HUD funding is going to come back tenfold to our community. Without HUD, all we

have achieved wouldn’t be possible.”

To learn more about the Anishinabe Cultural and Wellness Center, please contact: Lyle

Poitra, Turtle Mountain Community College, P.O. Box 340, Belcourt, ND 58316;

phone: (701) 477–7862, ext. 2065; e-mail: lpoitra@tm.edu. ✣

Youth help to tend the center’s grounds.

Awareness continued from page 5