American Indian Higher Education Consortium: Championing Tribal Colleges and Universities

The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) stands as a vital force in advocating for and supporting Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) across the United States. Established by college leaders in 1972, AIHEC's mission is rooted in protecting the interests of tribally controlled colleges and securing adequate funding, while championing tribal sovereignty and self-determination. AIHEC has evolved into a multifaceted organization that not only monitors political and legislative issues, but also fosters intercollegiate activities and provides a forum to address Indian research issues.

A Historical Imperative

AIHEC emerged during a pivotal era when Native American communities were coalescing around shared objectives and establishing organizations focused on promoting sovereignty and representing tribal and pantribal needs. The complex issues surrounding the implementation of the Tribally Controlled Community College Act of 1978 further solidified AIHEC's role as a crucial advocate for American Indian higher education at both state and federal levels.

The Tribal College Program and Land-Grant Status

A cornerstone of AIHEC's work is the Tribal College Program, established to ensure the Department of Agriculture fulfills the requirements of the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 and Section 882 of the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. These acts designated tribally controlled colleges and universities as land-grant institutions, mandating the Department to develop a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with these "1994 Institutions" and establish programs to ensure equitable access to the Department's resources.

Currently, there are 36 federally recognized tribal colleges and universities designated as land-grant institutions. For reservation communities, these institutions play a vital role in improving the lives and career opportunities for Native students and the communities at large. They support research, education, and extension programs that enhance local agriculture and food production.

The Tribal College Program equips tribal schools with the capacity to benefit Native American agriculture, rural Tribal economies, and to strengthen the United States’ food security.

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To help USDA fulfill its mandated responsibilities, the Tribal College Program staff provide critical assistance to the Secretary of Agriculture with the following:

Establishment and maintenance of formal memorandum of agreements with 1994 Institutions to ensure these schools and the rural, tribal communities they serve have equitable access to the Department’s employment, programs, services, and resources.
Development of policy, guidance and procedures.
Engage in outreach with these schools, the communities they serve, and the tribal governments that established them.

Key Programs and Initiatives

The Tribal College Program operates through several key programs, including:

USDA and American Indian Higher Education Consortium Leadership Group: This group comprises an equal number of USDA Mission Area decision-makers and 1994 Land-Grant Institutions president members. The leadership group meets face-to-face yearly to ensure that USDA programs and services are accessible to the 1994 Land-Grant Institutions and that USDA Mission Area representatives understand the uniqueness of and issues affecting these schools.
Tribal Scholars Program: This program seeks to increase the number of students studying agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, and related disciplines. The USDA 1994 Tribal Scholars Program combines classroom study with paid work experience that leads to employment at USDA. Through this program, USDA seeks to boost the number of tribal college and university students studying and graduating in food, agriculture, natural resources, and other related fields of study, and help build the pipeline of future agricultural scientists and professionals. The program also strengthens USDA partnerships with 1994 land-grant institutions.
Terra Preta do Indio Tribal Fellowship: This fellowship is available to 1994 TCU faculty and staff, 1890 and 1862 staff working with Tribal producers and Indigenous students in the areas of agriculture, conservation, natural resource, science, or community development to broaden and deepen their understanding of USDA and to further advance the development of their school’s land-grant function. The fellowship includes Tribal high school faculty and staff. These fellowships target and address mutual areas of interest between supporters of Tribal agriculture and USDA to provide training about resources and opportunities available at USDA. This uniquely tailored experience brings together Tribal high school and college faculty/staff and federal executives to address the spectrum of challenges faced in the development of a well-prepared American Indian and Alaska Native workforce.
Tribal College Liaisons: As local representatives of USDA, Tribal College Liaisons work with Tribes to increase economic development opportunities, workforce development, and Tribal and national food security. They share information on USDA programs and services with Tribal college students, Tribal nations, Native American farmers, and local communities.
Tribal Agriculture and Food Policy Interns: The USDA Office of Tribal Relations welcomed a cohort of summer interns to learn about Tribal agriculture and Tribal food sovereignty. Through the Future Leaders in Public Service Internship Program, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students will work on USDA agriculture, food, and nutrition programs that benefit Indian Country. The program seeks to develop a new generation of agricultural professionals with a better understanding of Tribal food and agriculture issues.

USDA and AIHEC: A Collaborative Partnership

The USDA and AIHEC maintain a strong collaborative relationship, exemplified by the Congressionally mandated memorandum of agreement. This partnership ensures that USDA programs and services are accessible to the 1994 Land-Grant Institutions.

AIHEC's Impact and Advocacy

AIHEC plays a crucial role in influencing policy and building programs in all facets of higher education. AIHEC provides leadership and influences public policy on American Indian higher education issues through research and program initiatives; promotes and strengthens Native American languages, and Tribal nations; and through its unique position, serves member institutions and emerging TCUs.

AIHEC advances the Tribal College Movement through a broad range of policy efforts to ensure tribal higher education is acknowledged and supported by federal law and policy. AIHEC does this through monitoring congressional and federal agencies’ actions, developing strategies, and advocating for TCU priorities. AIHEC’s government affairs team engages directly with TCU presidents, faculty, and staff on barriers and challenges they face that could potentially hinder the educational experience for their students. Additionally, the team brainstorms and compiles TCU priorities to be incorporated in larger authorizations such as the Farm Bill, the Higher Education Act, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, among others.

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AIHEC engages with numerous committees to advance TCU priorities. In the House of Representatives, the organization works with the natural resources, education and workforce, agriculture, and appropriations committees. In the Senate, AIHEC likewise interfaces regularly with several committees, including the Indian affairs; health, education, labor, and pensions; agriculture; and appropriations committees. Through these committees, AIHEC is able to work with key partners on TCU priorities through various funding mechanisms.

One major component of congressional relations is the appropriations process. This is extremely important, as 74% of TCUs’ operational funding comes from the federal government. Congress allocates funding to government agencies and programs. This is an annual process that funds the coming fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30 of the following calendar year. First, there is the release of the president’s budget, when individual agencies and programs announce their budget justifications and requests to Congress, outlining spending priorities for the next fiscal year. Next, the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees hold hearings on priorities and accept written testimony. Eventually, the House and Senate appropriations committees each draft and pass 12 individual appropriations bills, which fund various government functions. Each chamber passes its own appropriations bill. Afterwards, they must reconcile differences between their respective bills to develop one bill. Each chamber then seeks to pass the conferenced bill. Unfortunately, Congress does not always follow this formal process. Often, Congress will resort to passing a continuing resolution (CR) to extend the previous fiscal year’s terms, conditions, and spending levels for a short period of time into the new fiscal year.

Throughout this process, AIHEC works with congressional offices to develop what are called “dear colleague letters,” which outline funding priorities for the upcoming fiscal year for certain appropriations subcommittees. Specifically, AIHEC partners with congressional offices to develop a dear colleague letter on priorities within the Department of the Interior, highlighting the need for increased levels for TCUs’ core operational funding (Titles I, II, III). Additionally, the letter discusses the need for increased funding for construction. For example, AIHEC completed a TCU construction study in 2021, which revealed many chronic unmet facilities and infrastructure needs, including a lack of student and faculty housing, inadequate classroom space, insufficient library facilities, and outdated laboratories. AIHEC submits another dear colleague letter to the House and Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittees. TCUs received Land-Grant status in 1994 through the Equity in Education Land Grant Status Act.

Besides the dear colleague letters, AIHEC submits written testimony to the key appropriations subcommittees that provide TCU funding. Through testimony, AIHEC can discuss funding priorities, current barriers and challenges, and examples of success at TCUs. In total, AIHEC submits 10 different testimonials to the appropriations subcommittees in the House of Representatives and the Senate. AIHEC’s president and CEO also testifies in person before the House interior appropriations subcommittee during their tribal public witness days.

Once the appropriations subcommittees receive testimony on funding priorities, AIHEC monitors each subcommittee for their markup dates, which is when they release their respective bills and reports and vote on whether to advance them to their full appropriations committee. After the full House and Senate appropriations committees vote on their respective bills and reports, they move to the House or Senate floor for a final vote. AIHEC conducts an analysis of each chamber to develop an appropriations strategy.

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While the appropriations process takes place each year to determine that fiscal year’s funding for federal agencies and programs, Congress separately considers authorizing legislation. Most recently, AIHEC led the effort to provide a transformational change in the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) through the NACIE Improvement Act. The NACIE Improvement Act requires that at least one council member is a TCU president. The council is comprised of 15 members who are representatives of Indian education and are appointed by the president of the United States. The council advises the secretaries of education and the interior on matters related to Indian education that are administered through their respective agencies. And TCU voices are powerful.

A prime example occurred during the budget reconciliation process in 2025. AIHEC was most concerned about the changes proposed by the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Specifically, the committee proposed changes to the eligibility threshold in the federal Pell Grant Program. Changes would have included an increase in full-time status requirements from 24 to 30 credit hours per academic year and elimination of eligibility for less than half-time students, which would include those who take fewer than 15 credit hours per academic year. In analyzing AIHEC’s American Indian Measures of Success (AIMS) data and through outreach with TCUs, AIHEC determined that these changes would be extremely detrimental to TCUs, especially considering that over 51% of tribal college students are categorized as part-time.

AIHEC’s government affairs team sprang into action, compiling data and stories on how the proposed changes would impact each institution. Through these stories and with AIMS data, AIHEC created a one pager titled “Protect Pell grants for Tribal Colleges and Universities.” Additionally, AIHEC created template letters for TCUs to send to their respective senators. AIHEC partnered with a public affairs and strategic communications firm called NUNA Consulting, which specializes in serving Indigenous communities and social justice movements, to submit media pieces to local news outlets in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Those TCUs, in turn, have received media requests for on-camera interviews, which has raised awareness. Ultimately, through TCU advocacy, as well as advocacy from other educational organizations, the proposed Pell grant changes did not make the final passage of the budget reconciliation bill.

With federal relations, AIHEC’s work includes monitoring and advocating for TCU priorities within various federal agencies. AIHEC engages with federal agencies to find pathways for TCUs to overcome barriers. One recent challenge occurred in February 2025, when the administration’s Executive Order 14210, “Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative,” required every federal agency to terminate all probationary employees. Unfortunately, this negatively impacted the two federally operated TCUs, Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI).

AIHEC partnered with TCU presidents, tribal leaders, congressional offices, and tribal communities to underscore that these institutions are important pillars within Indian Country which advance tribal economies and educational opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native students. AIHEC created a call to action urging the Department of the Interior to exempt Haskell and SIPI from workforce reductions and hiring freezes. Corresponding press releases and tribal resolution templates supplemented this effort. Further, AIHEC partnered with other Native organizations to increase outreach. Through AIHEC and actions from the general public, the Department of the Interior reversed the terminations and provided reinstatement notices to all employees.

TCU Legislative Summit

The capstone of AIHEC’s congressional and federal relations work is the annual TCU Legislative Summit, held every February in Washington, DC. This event brings together nearly 200 TCU presidents, faculty, staff, and, most importantly, students to directly influence federal funding and policy decisions. The summit is designed to coincide with the beginning of the federal appropriations cycle-the release of the president’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The timing is crucial because it marks the moment when Congress and federal agencies begin to craft decisions that will determine funding allocations for the year ahead.

The three-day summit includes one day of setting the scene and two days of in-person meetings with each TCU’s congressional delegation. Students also have the opportunity for a scheduled tour of the nation’s capital and self-directed sightseeing. On the first day of the summit, attendees learn about TCU priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. They hear directly from AIHEC staff and from key administration officials from the White House and the Departments of Interior, Education, and Agriculture. The day ends with attendees taking what they have learned and fine-tuning their personal stories. Students develop their “elevator speech,” which includes what they are studying, why they selected their TCU, and what services tribal colleges provide that mainstream institutions do not. Students often discuss how TCUs offer unprecedented opportunities that they would not have otherwise. For example, one student from a TCU in Michigan discussed the research opportunities that were available for freshmen. The student previously attended a mainstream institution and moved back to their tribal community to pursue a different educational path. The student stated that when they were attending the larger state university, they did not have similar research opportunities and those that did exist were mainly for upperclassmen.

Days two and three present an opportunity for each attendee to meet with their congressional delegation. When the week is over, TCU advocates will have conducted almost 70 meetings and spoken with members of Congress from the 16 states where TCUs are located. Each year, the Legislative Summit features a different theme depending on the political landscape, whether that is their response to COVID-19, construction and infrastructure issues, the Farm Bill, or workforce development. In 2025, impact sheets highlighted the workforce development programs that each TCU offers. The impact sheets spotlighted the partnerships the TCUs have with their respective tribal nations, communities, and regional industries. Additionally, TCUs highlighted community needs for potential programs, equipment, or buildings that are necessary to bolster the local or regional workforce. For example, Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota emphasized how it conducts a comprehensive workforce alignment study to better understand community needs and build new programs accordingly.

The Legislative Summit is in large part designed for TCU presidents to meet with lawmakers face-to-face and share information that is of great importance to their institutions and the TCU system as a whole, especially as it relates to the colleges’ successes, challenges, and needs. However, the most important attendees are the students, as they are the prime examples of success at the nation’s tribal colleges and universities. Students get firsthand experience on how the federal appropriations cycle works, what the TCU priorities are, and how to advocate effectively.

Outside of presenting TCU priorities during congressional meetings, students have the opportunity to demonstrate why their TCU is crucial to their higher education career. As AIHEC continues to conduct meetings throughout the year, congressional staffers often cite student stories that they remember from the Legislative Summit. For example, one staffer recalled the challenges and barriers a student shared while attending a larger state university, stressing the disconnectedness to family and culture that they experienced. A new event added to the 2025 Legislative Summit was a panel for students on internships, fellowships and career pathways.

To conclude the Legislative Summit, AIHEC organizes sightseeing activities for students, as this is most likely the first time they have been to Washington, DC. The highly attended activity is the annual evening bus tour that visits several historical sites and monuments around the city.

A Vision for the Future

As AIHEC prepares for the next Legislative Summit, it does so knowing that together, it is not just seeking funding, but advocating for a future where TCUs thrive, students are valued and supported, and tribal communities are prosperous. The connections made at the Legislative Summit, both in terms of advocacy and education, have the potential to influence the direction of policy for years to come. It is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn about TCU funding streams, while also developing public speaking skills to tell a compelling story about why their tribal college is critical to their higher education career, their family, and their community.

Financial Support and Governance

AIHEC activities are supported by member dues, grants and contracts. AIHEC is a 501(c)(3) organization governed by a board of directors, which is composed of the presidents of the accredited United States-based TCUs.

The Genesis of Tribal Colleges

In a bold expression of sovereignty, American Indian tribal governments began chartering their own institutions of higher education in the 1960s. These institutions arose from: (1) the inadequacy of the existing higher education system to address the needs of-or even include-American Indians and Alaska Natives; and (2) the necessity of preserving our culture, language, lands, and sovereignty for future generations. In 1973, the first six tribal colleges established the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) to provide a support network to more effectively influence federal policies on American Indian and Alaska Native higher education. Today, AIHEC has grown to 36 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) in the United States. Cultural values are embedded in AIHEC and the TCUs’ mission statements, their work, and in college life.

The Value of Tribal Colleges: Testimonials

The impact of Tribal Colleges extends beyond statistics and policy. The following testimonials offer a glimpse into the personal experiences of students at these institutions:

"My favorite thing about FDLTCC is the people. I’ve met fantastic students, faculty and staff who go above and beyond what I expected."
"It is awesome here at the FDLTCC Education Program because it is like a family here, if you need help or are struggling with anything, you have quite a few people who will help you out."
"I chose FDLTCC because of its size and the curriculum. When I first came here in 2019, I was just looking for what I needed to volunteer, perhaps in a crisis shelter."

These voices highlight the supportive and community-oriented environment that Tribal Colleges provide, fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment for students.

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