Vol. 4, Issue 1 

office of university 

Partnerships 

Tribal Colleges 

and Universities 

Program 

Expanding the Future of Tribal Education


expanding Minds and Preserving Cultures


L ike most institutions of higher education, Tribal colleges wear 

many hats. In addition to their primary 

goal to deliver academic instruction that 

provides students the skills they need to 

succeed, Tribal colleges serve as a valuable 

resource for their communities, offering 

career development programs and muchneeded community services, enhancing 

economic development, and creating strong 

leadership. At Tribal colleges, supporting 

the community is not an option—it’s a 

given. But what sets them apart from other 

colleges and universities is a commitment 

to their culture. Tribal colleges play a vital 

role in preserving native languages and 

maintaining cultural traditions. 

This issue of TCUP Central showcases 

the efforts of three Tribal colleges that 

are expanding the minds of students 

while strengthening the community and 

preserving their cultures. 

Chief Dull Knife College Balances 

Educational Opportunities with 

Community Needs 

Harmony is a reoccurring theme in Native 

American cultures. The philosophy of 

striking a balance with other humans, 

creatures, and Mother Earth so that all 

may live in harmony is the moral of many 

Native American stories. These subtle 

messages that promote harmony have been 

clearly heard and are being applied at Chief 

Dull Knife College, a tribally controlled 

institution of higher education located on 

the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation 

in Lame Deer, Montana. 

With the assistance of TCUP 

funds, Tribal colleges and 

universities continue to renovate 

and expand their physical 

facilities to meet the growing 

educational needs of their 

students, faculty, and staff, 

as well as their communities. 

Support for Parents Leads to a 

Learning Experience for Students 

When the need for additional safe and 

reliable childcare arose in the small rural 

town of Lame Deer, many community 

members saw it as an insurmountable 

challenge, as resources and options are 

often limited. But the faculty and staff 

at Chief Dull Knife College devised a 

solution that turned the problem into an 

educational opportunity for students—and 

provided parents with much-needed 

childcare. 

With a recent grant from the U.S. 

Department of Housing and Urban 

Development’s (HUD’s) Office of 

University Partnerships (OUP), Chief Dull 

Knife College built a new Early Childhood 

Learning Center that is mutually beneficial 

to students and community members. 

Designing a Center that 

Balances Culture with the 

Natural Environment 

Planning for the new Early Childhood 

Learning Center began in 2003 when 

Chief Dull Knife College sought assistance 

from the University of Washington and the 

Pennsylvania State University, with whom 

it had a working relationship. The three 

institutions formed the American Indian 

Housing Initiative (AIHI), a collaborative 

effort to adapt and deploy sustainable 

building technologies on American 

Indian reservations. The Early Childhood 

Learning Center project enlisted the help 

of faculty and students from the University 

of Washington, Penn State, and the 

continued on page 2 

Office of Policy Development

and Research 
TCUP Central is a free publication pre -

pared 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 

www.oup.org. 

Expanding Minds, 

continued from page 1 

University of Wisconsin–Madison 

to design and build a center that 

complemented the unique cultural heritage 

of the Northern Cheyenne. To ensure 

that the structure met the needs of the 

community, faculty and students held 

community design workshops and used 

landscape projects as an opportunity to 

unite Cheyenne youth and elders with 

college students. 

Innovative Building With 

Straw Bales 

The result of this collaborative effort was 

a 4,000-square-foot facility that uses straw 

bales as its primary 

building material. 

The advantages of 

a facility built with 

eco-friendly 

straw bales are 

numerous. Straw 

bales provide 

excellent thermal 

insulation, making 

them an ideal 

building material 

that can endure 

Montana’s average 

temperatures that 

range from 5o F in 

the winter months 

to 89o F in the 

summer months. In 

addition, Montana 

can experience unseasonably cold or hot 

temperatures that range from 50 degrees 

above or below average. Straw bales are 

also weatherproof, fire resistant, pest-free, 

and soundproof—all very desirable features 

for a childcare facility. Moreover, building 

with straw bales is extremely cost-effective 

($2 to $4 per bale) as the material is 

easily available and installation requires 

minimal expertise. 

Construction of the outer shell of the Early Childhood Learning Center 

Early Childhood Learning Center under construction 

The facility also maximizes daylight 

and uses radiant floor heating and 

evaporative cooling to further enhance 

its energy efficiency. 

The Early Childhood Learning Center 

at Chief Dull Knife College is the 

seventh building constructed through the 

collaborative effort of the AIHI and its 

partner universities. Each year, students 

and faculty collaborate on the design, 

planning, and construction of a sustainable 

home or community building. Facilities 

are constructed in two 3-week blitz-build 

workshops during the summer. To date, 

partner universities and the AIHI have built 

four homes and three community buildings 

using straw bale construction. 

“This is truly a mutual learning experience 

for everyone involved, no matter what their 

background,” said Sam Dennis, professor 

of landscape architecture at the University 

of Wisconsin–Madison. “It’s about bringing 

together the resources and the expertise of 

the Cheyenne and other people to create a 

sustainable building and partnership.” 

A Mutually Beneficial Solution 

With the addition of the new Early 

Childhood Learning Center, the 

availability of safe and reliable childcare 

continued on page 3 

2 / TCUP Central 
Expanding Minds, continued from page 2 Cultural learning Center Builds skills 

is no longer a weighing issue for the and Preserves Heritage 

community. In addition, the center enables 

students who are pursuing degrees in 

early and elementary education to interact 

with young children more closely and 

translate education theory into practice. 

The center provides college students 

with an opportunity to hone their skills, 

making them better prepared for life after 

college—all while providing a valuable 

service to the community. 

Early Childhood Learning Center 

For additional information about the Early 

Childhood Learning Center and Chief Dull 

Knife College, contact: 

William Wertman 

Vice President, Administration 

P.O. Box 98 

Chief Dull Knife College 

Lame Deer, MT 59043 

Phone: (406) 477-6215, ext. 117 

Fax: (406) 477-6219 

E-mail: bwertman@cdkc.edu =

T he spiritual heart of the campus. That’s how Tom Davis, 

president of Little Priest Tribal College 

(LPTC) in Winnebago, Nebraska, 

describes the school’s Cultural Learning 

Center. One of five main buildings on 

the LPTC campus, the center stands as 

a repository of the knowledge and 

culture of the Winnebago people. It 

is also one of the few places in this 

rural community where students can 

access the Internet and information on 

topics of interest to them. To ensure 

that the facility offers students the 

equipment and resources they need, the 

college recently used grant funds from 

the U.S. Department of Housing and 

Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Office 

of University Partnerships (OUP) to 

enhance the center. 

Center Helps to Preserve 

Language and Culture 

LPTC holds stakeholder listening 

sessions with the college’s internal 

constituencies— students, faculty, staff, 

administrators, and board of directors— 

to identify specific institutional needs. 

The Cultural Learning Center, with its 

classroom, museum, offices, computer 

lab, and kitchen, was constructed in 

response to those needs. For example, 

students wanted more classroom and 

meeting space to support the tribal 

language program. The center now 

houses the Renaissance program where 

students are instructed in Winnebago 

language and culture. “The Winnebago 

language is dying,” says Davis. “But 

through the Renaissance program, 

teachers fluent in the Winnebago 

language, along with their teaching 

assistants, instruct over 900 students per 

year in this language.” In this program, 

students also receive instruction in the 

Winnebago culture from ethnobotany 

to tribal games and music. They also 

participate in programs where they 

compete to demonstrate their mastery 

of the language or display their skills by 

cooking traditional feasts that feature 

dishes such as milkweed soup. Through 

this program, college students have 

access to more than four semesters of 

language classes. “This is important, 

continued on page 4 

 / TCUP Central 

Front view of the Cultural Learning Center 
Cultural Learning Center, continued from page 3 

because 75 percent of our graduating 

students go on to pursue baccalaureate 

degrees that have a foreign language 

requirement,” says Davis. “Although 

Winnebego is not considered a foreign 

language at LPTC, many universities 

consider it as such and students are able 

to use it to fulfill their foreign language 

requirement.” 

The center also houses the college’s Land 

Grant programs, which includes a research 

program. LPTC is strong on experiential 

learning and undergraduate research, and 

students in this program aid in research 

in areas such as ethnobotany and other 

culturally related disciplines. 

Exhibiting and Documenting 

History 

In the Winnebago community, the need 

for tribal archives and a museum is a 

major priority, and LPTC has as part of its 

responsibility the development of programs 

that preserve the language, culture, and 

traditions of the Winnebago people. The 

Cultural Learning Center houses the Tribe’s 

museum, archives, and a computer lab 

that is often used for language and cultural 

education. The museum is a substantial 

area with many Winnebego artifacts, 

including arrowheads, baskets, clothing, 

and headdresses. It has many unique 

features, such as the Mayan Center. 

A number of years ago, the college 

completed a project with the Mayan people 

in Mexico. The museum documents the 

project with artifacts as well as photographs 

that illustrate the commonalities between 

the Winnebago and Mayan cultures. 

The college Web site has a virtual museum 

that includes a powerful presentation 

of Winnebago cultural artifacts that can 

be examined from different angles and 

magnified to provide detail. Faculty, 

students, and tribal elders worked together 

to build this museum. Individuals from 

the National Museum of the American 

Indian in Washington, D.C., also worked 

with middle school students at the center’s 

computer lab to develop the photography 

using a lazy Susan device to capture all 

three dimensions of the photographed 

objects. The students worked with 

elders from the Renaissance program 

to create text to explain the objects’ 

cultural significance. 

At the center’s computer lab, professionals 

with the Renaissance program use regular 

computers with special software to digitize 

hundreds of hours of tapes on language and 

culture for transcription to become part of 

online classes. Students also use the lab to 

complete research and homework. 

Multifunctional Center 

“The Cultural Learning Center is a 

multifunctional center that provides 

instruction and information and is a place 

where students sometimes gather to hold 

meetings,” says Davis. They fully utilize 

the center’s kitchen facilities to prepare 

traditional meals for campus events. 

“Food is central to the Winnebago 

culture,” says Davis. “It fully expresses 

the culture at meetings, ceremonies, and 

classes—especially those on language and 

culture.” 

In addition to TCUP funds, LPTC also 

received assistance from the Winnebago 

Tribe, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

the American Indian College Fund, the 

U.S. Department of Education Title III, 

the National Science Foundation, and 

The American Indian Higher Education 

Consortium’s Log Cabin Project to help 

enhance the Cultural Learning Center. 

For additional information about Little 

Priest Tribal College and its Cultural 

Learning Center, contact: 

Tom Davis 

President 

Little Priest Tribal College 

601 East College Drive 

Winnebago, NE 68071 

E-mail: tdavis@lptc.bia.edu • 

Back view of the Cultural Learning Center 

4 / TCUP Central 
salish Kootenai College: Health Fitness Center Helps Promote 


Active lifestyle 

T he benefits of being physically fit are more than skin deep. Being 

physically active can save your life. In 

fact, being physically active could save 

more than 250,000 lives each year. That’s 

the number of deaths attributed to lack of 

regular physical activity. 

Physical inactivity ignites an unhealthy 

chain of events that can have deadly 

results. Being physically inactive—a 

category that more than 50 percent of 

Native American males and 64 percent of 

Native American females fall into—often 

leads to obesity, a leading risk factor for 

diabetes, which is the fourth deadliest 

disease among Native Americans and 

the most important risk factor for 

cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular 

disease is the leading cause of death 

of Native Americans, occurring at 

rates almost twice that of the general 

U.S. population. 

But, perhaps more than any other health 

condition, physical inactivity can be 

prevented. It’s often a challenge that 

requires a lifestyle change, and Salish 

Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, is 

helping students make that change. 

Unwilling to Become a Statistic 

As area residents changed their living 

patterns, the likelihood of engaging 

physical activity was reduced. “Our 

people have transitioned from an active 

farming community to a people that 

now live in cluster housing,” said Joe 

McDonald, president of Salish Kootenai 

College. “This has reduced the amount 

of daily physical activity. They no longer 

need to walk. Anywhere we travel is 

by car.” 

Salish Kootenai College has reintroduced 

students and community members to 

the idea and importance of maintaining 

Inside the newly dedicated health and fitness center 

an active lifestyle. Thanks to a grant 

from the U.S. Department of Housing 

and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) 

Office of University Partnerships (OUP), 

the college has recently constructed a 

health fitness center that includes the 

latest equipment found in fitness centers 

nationwide. The new fitness center is a 

vast improvement over previous exercise 

facilities that mostly included high school 

gymnasiums with limited access and 

equipment. “We have a fair amount of 

students that use the new fitness center, 

and its convenient location is helping 

attracting more of the local residents,” 

said McDonald. 

The health fitness center, which is the 

fourth facility the college has built to serve 

students, faculty, and staff, also provides 

dietary information and health referrals 

to reduce the incidence and effects of 

diabetes and obesity. Providing nutritional 

information is critical to improving 

the lives of students and the larger 

community, as the traditional diet is rich in 

fat and starch-based foods that add to an 

overall unhealthy lifestyle. Information on 

housing, health, employment, and higher 

education opportunities is also available at 

the fitness center. 

A Future of Growth 

The college plans to expand the fitness 

center with funding from various sources, 

including HUD and the U.S. Department 

of Agriculture. The expanded facility will 

build upon the health referral system and 

dietary information already available. 

When completed in 2007, the center will 

include a demonstration kitchen where 

students can learn about healthy ways of 

cooking and also serve as a community 

facility for large gatherings. 

The college works to preserve traditional 

languages, build leadership for economic 

development projects, and engage 

continued on page 6 

5 / TCUP Central 
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 

Office of University Partnerships 

451 Seventh Street, SW 

Washington, DC 20410-000 

Official Business 

Penalty for Private Use $00 

Return Service Requested 

Salish Kootenai College, continued from page 5 

people where they live to ensure that that will help with economic development 

the tribal cultures are preserved for projects designed to enhance the overall 

future generations. With a grant from condition of the community. The cultural 

the Kellogg Foundation, the school is and language preservation projects 

building a cadre of community leaders help to ensure that as growth occurs, 

the traditions of their ancestors are not 

forgotten and still provide an important 

touchstone for tribal members. 

FIRST-CLASS MAIL


POSTAGE & FEES PAID


HUD


Permit No. G–795


For additional information about Salish 

Kootenai College and its community 

outreach work, contact: 

Michael Timothy O’Donnell 

Office of the President

52000 Highway 93 North

Pablo, MT 59855

Phone: (406) 275-4800 

Fax: (406) 275-4801

E-mail: mod@skc.edu • 

Dedication ceremony for the Salish Kootenai 

College health and fitness center 

HUD’s Office of University Partnerships (OUP) provides grants to institutions of higher education to assist them and their partners 

with the implementation of a broad range of community development activities, including neighborhood revitalization, housing, and 

economic development. This newsletter, TCUP Central, highlights the efforts of grantees in OUP’s Tribal Colleges and Universities 

Program. With interesting articles on campus rehabilitation and renovation projects and vital social service programs, it is a 

valuable resource for Tribal colleges and universities.