The campus is a little bit of the reservation in the middle of the city. The Rev. Charles Cook, a Presbyterian minister, began teaching Native Americans in his Phoenix living room in 1871. The college named for him was founded in 1911 across from the Phoenix Indian School. In 1965, it moved to 708 S. Lindon Lane in Tempe. Cook College is as much a community as a school.
Most students are older and live on campus with their families.
Potluck suppers reflect a variety of people and tastes - Indian fry bread, Navajo tacos, Alaskan moose meat, coconut rice balls. The latter are the contribution of Percy Benjamin, a member of the indigenous Marshallese people of the U.S.-held Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. He was working as a tutor and teacher's aide and never considered attending seminary until his minister suggested Cook College. Now Benjamin feels a calling. I'm real glad I'm here.