Colleges That Teach Native American Languages
Haskell Indian Nations University
Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) is a tribal college in Lawrence, Kansas. It was founded in 1884 as the United States’ first off-reservation boarding school for Native American children. The university offers degrees in business, education, liberal arts and sciences, and social work. The campus also includes an on-site hospital with medical services for tribal members. Student population is about 2,000 students from more than 60 tribes across the country; many attend HINU on scholarships provided by their tribes or through federal grants like those awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
Navajo Technical University
Navajo Technical University is a tribal college located in Tsaile, Arizona. The university is a division of the Navajo Nation. It offers bachelor’s degrees in business administration and electrical engineering technology as well as associate’s degrees in civil engineering technology and computer science.
Leech Lake Tribal College
- Leech Lake Tribal College (LTC) is located in Cass Lake, Minnesota, and offers a two-year degree program that teaches Ojibwe language, Anishinaabemowin language, and English.
- Established in 1979 as part of the tribal government’s educational system, LTC became a college under its current name in 2004. It was one of only two colleges offering any courses on Ojibwe or Anishinaabemowin at the time—the other being Bemidji State University in Minnesota—and continues to be one of very few institutions still teaching these languages today.
Northwest Indian College
- Location: Aberdeen, Washington
- Established: 1965
- Offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
- Offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology.
- Offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Indian Studies and Native American Studies
Chief Dull Knife College
Chief Dull Knife College is located in Lame Deer, Montana. The college was founded in 1968 and named after a Cheyenne warrior who fought alongside Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Chief Dull Knife College offers associate degree programs, bachelor’s degrees and certificate programs that include tribal management; business administration; human resources management; accounting; computer science; nursing; liberal arts and sciences; communication studies/journalism/media studies/public relations; early childhood education; history/social science education for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 teachers (online); business education for K-12 teachers (online) etc.
Chief Dull Knife College provides distance learning courses via satellite technology or dial up connections as well as online courses through its Moodle Learning Management System platform.
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College is located in Baraga, Michigan. It offers programs in English and Ojibwe, and has a student population of about 1,000 students. The college has a student-to-teacher ratio of about 20:1. Some of its most popular programs include psychology and general studies/liberal arts & sciences.
The college has an overall graduation rate of 50%, which is higher than the average for community colleges (about 48%).
Comanche Nation College
Comanche Nation College is a community college in Lawton, Oklahoma. It has an enrollment of more than 2,000 students, and approximately 100 employees. The majority of these students are Native American. The school offers courses in many disciplines including art, business, education and science.
The Comanche Nation College was established in 2007 after the University of Central Oklahoma opened its campus at the site to allow more people to access higher education classes taught there by professors from their tribe or community colleges across Oklahoma.
United Tribes Technical College
United Tribes Technical College is a tribal college located in Bismarck, North Dakota. The college offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing/Master of Science in Nursing. It also offers a Master’s program that includes online courses through its distance learning program.
United Tribes Technical College is one of only two colleges throughout the United States to offer this kind of degree program and has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 1992. They have been recognized as one of the best tribal colleges for Native American language instruction by BestCollegesOnline.com
Salish Kootenai College
Salish Kootenai College, located in Pablo, Montana, is a tribal college founded by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. It’s accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and offers degrees at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The school serves nearly 1,100 students each year—many of whom are members of Native American tribes—and has about 20% international students from 27 countries around the world.
The school’s language programs include instruction in Blackfeet, Crow-Pelican Lake, Flathead/Kootenai (Salishan languages), Kalispel-Pend Oreille (Spokan-Kalispel) Language Systems as well as English as a Second Language classes for speakers of Spanish or German. In addition to its language courses offered on campus at Salish Kootenai College itself (which includes dorms), there are also various distance learning opportunities available through SKC’s community education division which covers topics like “Advanced Bilingualism” where students learn how best integrate their two cultures into one identity while still maintaining their own unique sense of self.”
There are many colleges that teach Native American languages.
There are many colleges that teach Native American languages, and most of them are located in the United States or Canada. Most of these schools are tribal colleges, but some are public and private institutions as well.