There has been an increase in the number of Native American male students attending college. Here are a mixed group of students representing several different groups including the Native American Political Leadership Program (NAPLP), visiting the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. They are part of SIWP (Semester in Washington Politics).
FORT TROTTEN, ND—American Indian male enrollment at tribal colleges and universities has risen 19 percent in the past six years, according to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. That translates into 5,807 male students out of a total tribal enrollment of some 18,400, according to AIHEC data.
“In the settings among indigenous people where you have to consider the cultural significance we serve, it is important to help male members,” says Dr. Elmer Guy, president of Navajo Tech. “It’s an important piece,” says Guy, echoing the sentiments of others.
“The men have been displaced,” explains AIHEC chair Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College. She says the traditional role of Native men on the reservation as “provider, gatekeeper, hunter” has gone by the wayside as the world around native men on the reservation has evolved.
Designing academic programs that draw on native historical ties to the land, such as the environmental science curriculum Carlston is pursuing, helps address the strong desire of many male students to strike a healthy balance between academic achievement and cultural values.
