Description

The Initiative on Native American Intellectual Leadership primarily supports a fellowship program for Indigenous knowledge makers and knowledge holders administered by First Nations Development Institute. However, monies have also been allocated to support other projects that advance the broad goals of the Initiative. Such projects will support intellectual leaders in Native communities, help Indigenous organizations working in the knowledge sector, and develop research tools and resources that Native leaders and organizations may use in their work.
The project proposed here advances these objectives. Specifically, the project team seek to develop a partnership between the University of Montana (UM) and Salish Kootenai College (SKC), a tribal college on the Flathead Reservation. They plan to develop an indigenous studies doctoral program at the University that is designed to address the particular needs and aspirations of tribes and Native students and that will articulate with SKC’s Native studies undergraduate program, making it easier and more appealing for SKC students to pursue a doctorate.
There are Native studies PhD programs in the US already, but most of these are traditional doctoral programs focused on history, literature, and culture. They do not necessarily provide Native students the particular knowledge and skills they are seeking in order to serve their communities more effectively as knowledge makers. Nor are these programs designed collaboratively with tribal colleges, which embody and execute the educational visions and policies of tribal nations.
The Foundation’s Native leadership initiative has sought to encourage more Native people to complete PhDs and pursue advanced research that benefits their communities; we have also sought to strengthen tribal colleges which provide culturally-relevant post-secondary education to Native people, principally on reservations. The project recommended here would accomplish both goals—and pioneer a new model of collaboration between tribal colleges and research universities.
The University of Montana has long served the state’s tribes. It has a longstanding undergraduate program in Native American Studies, and it has invested in new resources to support indigenous people in recent years, including the Payne Family Native American Center, the Cobell Land and Culture Institute, and the American Indian Governance and Policy Institute. UM has no PhD program in Native studies, but many Indigenous students pursue PhDs through the Individual Interdisciplinary Program.
Salish Kootenai College is one of the nation’s leading tribal colleges, offering 21 associate’s and 17 bachelor’s degree programs and serving as a principal site for degree completion for the state’s six other tribal colleges, which offer only associate’s degrees.
The project team will be led by UM Professor Kate Shanley (Nakoda), former chair of UM’s Native American Studies Department and former president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, and SKC Professor Dean Nicolai (Salish-Kootenai), head of the Department of Native American Studies. During the grant period, faculty teams from the two schools will gather several times for intensive planning sessions and also community meetings with other stakeholders. They will also visit indigenous studies doctoral programs at several other universities. The project team aim to design a curriculum and several specific courses for a cohort-based PhD program that can be submitted to the UM Regents next year.
The grant would fund these convenings and trips and also a Native graduate student who will serve as project coordinator and research assistant.
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