Aaniiih Nakoda College swings into new school year looking to build on success

With registration still open, Aaniiih Nakoda College at Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is starting its first week of classes building on past success and still working on building enrollment.

Aaniiih Nakoda College President Carole Falcon-Chandler said everyone is welcome to enroll at the accredited tribal college, named for the two tribes comprising the Fort Belknap Indian Community.

“We do things a little different because we are located in our tribal community, but we still have open admission. Anyone can come here, no one is turned away,” she said.

As of Wednesday morning, Aaniiih Nakoda College had 127 students, she said, with the numbers not quite as high as they have been in the past.

“We are trying to build that to 150,” she added.

Students can still register by Friday. She said everyone on campus, including faculty, is trying to bring enrollment up and that it is not the time to sit back any more.

As of February 2018, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium recorded that there are 36 Tribal Colleges and Universities that operate in more than 75 sites in 16 states and serve 30,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives in academic and community based programs each year. Montana has the most tribal colleges in the United States and Aaniiih Nakoda College is one out of seven tribal colleges. The other six are Stone Child College at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, Fort Peck Community College in Poplar, Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.

An AIHEC flyer said tribal colleges and universities were established for two reasons: the failure of the U.S. higher education system to address the needs of American Indians and the need to preserve their tribal culture, language, lands and sovereignty — their past and their future.

Falcon-Chandler said being a tribal college gives ANC a special position.

“We are different. We are not like the mainstream, meaning, say, we are unique. We are accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities which is led by the Montana Board of Regents,” Falcon-Chandler said. “We have been accredited since the year 2000 with many comdidaitions and less recommendations.” 

She said Aaniiih Nakoda College has a great partnership with the state from the governor to the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs, to state legislators and the Legislature’s State Tribal Relations Committee. She added that the college has its own board of directors that partners with AIHEC and also goes to Congress and advocate for what the college is doing

The board of directors, chartered by Fort Belknap Indian Community Council, oversees the operations of the college. Also, since the college is an institution of higher education, it is required to follow all state rules and regulations, the same standard of rules and regulations the campuses of Montana State University and University of Montana must follow.

The seven tribal colleges in the state work together, she said.

“We were established to help one another, not to compete and try to get more for own institution,” Falcon-Chandler said.

She said the staff and faculty at Aaniiih Nakoda College are committed and dedicated and always looking for ways to revamp their program or find new programs. Two new programs were added to this academic school year including adding in workforce training with additional courses in carpentry and welding. Another new program this year, she said, is students can transfer into a four-year program in industrial trades.

A requirement that all students must take before they graduate she said, are three credits of Intro to American Indian Studies and three credits in either the Aaniiih language or the Nakoda language.

She said ANC has embedded a goal set by the AIHEC as part of its mission: “To build place-based higher education systems founded on tribal ways of knowing, traditional knowledge and spirituality”

Falcon-Chandler said ANC has programs similar to the rest of the university system, but the uniqueness in that is all of their programs are embedded in their cultures and language.

She added that the majority of the student population is Native American and that the students may feel like they are part of the community and feel comfortable with having something they understand. 

She said she tells her students to make sure they go to classes and not to give up.

Since Aaniiih Nakoda College is mostly a two-year program, they offer programs and courses that could be transferred to another institution. 

“When they leave here and go to another institution, we try to help them because we make sure we take care of them here, that they are successful, and we do tell them how things are going to be when they leave,” she said. “We try to help them with that transition to another institution. We don’t hold their hand, but we give them that encouragement that we are always here if they need help.”