It took nine years and a lot of support for Olivia Clah to graduate last weekend with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fort Lewis College.
She had to care for her daughter, Kalea, now age 11. Clah’s father died, dealing a devastating emotional blow. Her mother often needed her help.
“I would go a semester here, a semester there, depending on my circumstances,” said Clah, who is from Mexican Hat, Utah.
She transferred to FLC in 2006 from Snow College, a two-year institution in Ephraim, Utah.
As a Navajo, Clah, age 37, had one advantage in pursuing her education: free tuition at FLC. All Native American students at FLC receive free tuition, an agreement dating back to a 1910 charter with the state of Colorado.
“I don’t think I would have really looked at Fort Lewis if there wasn’t the tuition waiver,” she said. Clah now plans to pursue a master’s degree at either the University of New Mexico or Utah State University.
FLC awards more bachelor’s degrees to Native Americans than any other four-year institution in the United States. Only one other college, the University of Minnesota, Morris, offers free tuition to Native Americans.
More than 1,100 Native American students are expected to enroll at FLC this fall, placing a mounting financial strain on the century-old government promise to educate Native American students free of charge.
FLC President Dene Kay Thomas has lobbied Congress to pay the $16 million annual price tag. Currently, the state of Colorado picks up the tab, regardless if Native Americans students are in-state or out-of-state. She has allies in Colorado’s congressional delegation and in former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who has traveled with Thomas to Washington, D.C., to lobby his former colleagues.
Thomas expects the Native American Indian Education Act to be introduced soon in the Senate with the support of Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo. In the House, the legislation has attracted 27 co-sponsors, led by Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez.
It may take time, but college spokesman Mitch Davis said the bill has bipartisan support.
“I’m fairly confident this bill will pass,” he said.
If it does, it would ensure continued funding for what has become an indelible part of FLC’s identity.
“We believe in our mission to educate Native Americans,” Thomas said.
An old promise
Fort Lewis was founded as an Indian boarding school. There was a constant need to bring in more Native Americans, which proved difficult because it separated them from their families, to keep the doors open, said Yvonne Bilinski, director of the Native American Center at FLC, who gave a public talk in April about the history of the Native American tuition waiver.
The original Hesperus campus was transferred to the state of Colorado in 1910.
By 1957, Fort Lewis had only nine Native American students. By 1970, that figure had ballooned to 192, Bilinski said.
In recent years, the Native American community at FLC has only grown. Last fall, FLC enrolled 1,123 Native American students, a 43 percent increase from five years earlier. Native Americans in fall 2014 made up 29 percent of the college’s 3,814 students.
Confirmations are up for fall 2015, making it likely more Native American students than ever will enroll for the 2015-16 school year.
These students aren’t exclusively from tribes native to the Four Corners, such as the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo. Among the top tribes sending students to FLC are the Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Nation.
That’s part of FLC’s argument for federal funding: Colorado taxpayers shouldn’t alone bear the cost of educating Native American students from many states. In all, FLC enrolls students from 155 tribes.
Thomas said students from Alaskan tribes drive in a convoy to FLC at the start of each school year.
To cater to its Native American students, FLC has expanded its services. The Native American Center is a home for extra tutoring and social support. Hozhoni Days each spring brings a powwow and other events to campus. More academic programs, including a Native American and Indigenous Studies major, allow students to trace their own histories.
“Having a Native American studies program is important to serving the region that we live in,” Davis said.
Pull of home
Native American students at FLC often keenly feel the homesickness and self-doubts common to many college students.
In many cases, they are the first in their families to attend college. The comforts of home often are within a day’s drive. Family obligations weigh heavily.
Clah said her mother would sometimes “just pop up on weekends.”
“You kind of can’t say no to your elders,” she said. “It’s about maintaining that respect and listening to them – that’s important to us. It does interfere, especially how close we are to home.”
Bilinski said Native American students often are called home to help on weekends, perhaps getting hay or fetching well water.
“They come back on Sunday, and they have to hurry up and do homework,” she said.
Bilinski said family members could benefit from training on how to support a college student.
“We also need orientation for the parents and adults and (aunts and uncles),” she said. “We also want them to understand what it’s like to go away to college and how they can help.”
Diana Rose Yellow, age 42, said the support of her family and the Native American Center was vital in completing her education. She had to deal with the death of her own mother, and Diana has two children to care for. She also struggled with ADHD and depression during her college career.
“Those are struggles I had to deal with, but the school was so helpful,” Rose Yellow said.
She graduated last weekend with a bachelor’s degree in public health.
Rose Yellow said Native American students at FLC sometimes have uncomfortable conversations with other students who do not receive free tuition.
“Some people I come across, they say, ‘that must be nice.’ I don’t like hearing that attitude,” Rose Yellow said. “At the same time, I deserve it because my people have gone through so much back in the day.”
