But the biggest factor in attending Fort Lewis in her late 30s, Bancroft recalls, was her feeling of not being alone. Two decades earlier, Bancroft, who is a member of the Long Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation of California's eastern Sierra Nevadas, started her undergraduate education as one of very few Native Americans at a large research university in California. She lasted less than two years in the pre-med program before rushing back to the familiar embrace of her Sierra Nevada homeland. A few years later she moved to Colorado so that her two young sons could experience the culture of their father, who is a member of the Ute tribe. What scared me about it was that the classes were so large, but there really wasn't anybody that you could ask if you had questions.
Personal attention is one of the keys to Fort Lewis's success in the sciences.
Nestled in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, with a view of Durango, the winding Animas River, and the snowcapped La Plata mountains, Fort Lewis is a part of the Colorado State University system. But it is also a liberal arts college with a student population of just over 4,000. Free tuition, a product of a 19th-century treaty, is just one incentive Fort Lewis offers to Native Americans. The college begins recruiting from the 25 reservations within 150 miles of campus as early as the fifth grade, with faculty and current and past students touting the benefits of the college. The recruiting does not end once a student has decided to enroll at Fort Lewis.