The American Indian College Fund has selected five tribal colleges to receive its Tribal College Leaders in Community Innovation Award, which recognizes innovative approaches for fighting poverty and building thriving Native communities and economies. The awards include a total of $725,000 in funding to help the recipients share and replicate their work. Four of the five awards, representing $600,000 of the total, are to tribal colleges located in the Ninth Federal Reserve District. The winning approaches range from a leadership development initiative for tribal community members to a wellness program centered on the therapeutic value of traditional plants and foods. The awardees are Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, Minn.; Stone Child College in Box Elder, Mont.; Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, N.D.; Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, S.D.; and Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Wash. For details about their innovative initiatives, visit www.collegefund.org/press/detail/257.
The awards are funded by the Northwest Area Foundation, which is dedicated to reducing poverty in the eight-state region of Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington.
