Type | Private tribal land-grant community college |
---|---|
Established | 1977 |
Academic affiliations | American Indian Higher Education Consortium American Association of Community Colleges Space-grant |
President | Sandra Boham |
Students | 850 |
Location | , U.S. |
Campus | Rural |
Nickname | Bison (Lady Bison) |
Affiliations | Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles |
Website | www |
Salish Kootenai College (SKC) is a private tribal land-grant community college in Pablo, Montana. It serves the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes. SKC's main campus is on the Flathead Reservation. There are three satellite locations in eastern Washington state, in Colville, Spokane, and Wellpinit. Approximately 1,207 students attend SKC. Although enrollment is not limited to Native American students, SKC's primary function is to serve the needs of Native American people.
Prior to 1978, SKC was a branch campus of Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC). SKC is a tribal college, chartered in 1977 under the sovereign governmental authority of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In 1981, the college formally disassociated from FVCC and became completely self-governing. [1] The college was designated a land-grant college in 1994 alongside 31 other tribal colleges. [2]
In 2015, a satellite designed by SKC students and faculty was successfully deployed into low Earth orbit under NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, making it the first operational CubeSat designed by a tribal college. BisonSat's primary mission objective is to transmit image data of Earth with a targeted ground sample distance of 100 meters. [3]
Some former employees sued the college in 2017 under the Federal False Claims Act, saying that the administration had falsified student records in order to continue receiving public grant funding from the United States Department of Human Services and the United States Department of Indian Health Services. [4] This suit was dismissed with prejudice in May 2018 by United States District Court, D. Montana, Missoula Division in a determination that the lawsuit violated tribal sovereignty of the Confederation Salish and Kootenai Tribes. [5]
SKC offers 17 bachelor's degree programs, 24 associate degree programs, and 6 certificate programs. Although most of the degree programs are career-oriented, students can elect to take courses of study in fields such as the liberal arts and Native American Studies. [1]
SKC is a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, a community of tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations and make a lasting difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives. SKC was created to serve the needs of American Indians for higher education. SKC generally serves geographically isolated populations that have no other means to gain higher education beyond the high school level. [1]
The sports teams are nicknamed the "Bison" and "Lady Bison". Although they are not within any athletic association. SKCs men's basketball program has won 3 consecutive American Indian Higher Education Consortium Basketball Championships (05, 06, 07) and the women have won 2 (03, 07). The Bison, and Lady Bison also are the current AIHEC champions, both winning the 2014 tournament.
Scholarships available through the American Indian College Fund (AICF)
Pablo is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lake County, Montana, United States. The population was 2,254 at the 2010 census, up from 1,814 in 2000. It is the home of Salish Kootenai College and the seat of government of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes – also known as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The reservation was created through the July 16, 1855, Treaty of Hellgate.
Northwest Indian College is a public tribal land-grant community college in Bellingham, Washington. It was established by the Lummi Nation and is the only accredited tribal college or university serving reservation communities of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are a federally recognized tribe in the U.S. state of Montana. The government includes members of several Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes and is centered on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
The Bitterroot Salish are a Salish-speaking group of Native Americans, and one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to the Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes also. Bitterroot Salish or Flathead originally lived in an area west of Billings, Montana extending to the continental divide in the west and south of Great Falls, Montana extending to the Montana-Wyoming border. From there they later moved west into the Bitterroot Valley. By request, a Catholic mission was built here in 1841. In 1891 they were forcibly moved to the Flathead Reservation.
The Kutenai, also known as the Ktunaxa, Ksanka, Kootenay and Kootenai, are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern Idaho, and western Montana. The Kutenai language is a language isolate, thus unrelated to the languages of neighboring peoples or any other known language.
The Pend d'Oreille or Pend d'Oreilles, also known as the Kalispel, are Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. Today many of them live in Montana and eastern Washington of the United States. The Kalispel peoples referred to their primary tribal range as Kaniksu.
The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, also known as SKQ Dam, is a concrete gravity-arch dam located at river mile 72 of the Flathead River. Built in 1938, it raises the level and increases the size of Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. The dam was designed to generate hydroelectricity but also serves recreational and irrigation uses.
Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC) is a private tribal land-grant community college in Belcourt, North Dakota. It is located ten miles from the Canada–US border in Turtle Mountain, the north central portion of North Dakota. In 2012, TMCC's enrollment was 630 full- and part-time certificate and degree-seeking students.
The CSKT Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison and welcomes between 50-60 calves per year. Established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1908, the BR consists of approximately 18,524 acres (7,496 ha) within the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. The management was transferred back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2022 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations.
Sisseton Wahpeton College (SWC) is a Public tribal land-grant community college of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota. It was established in 1979 and serves the Dakota people. SWC has an average enrollment of about 250 students, of whom more than 80% are tribal members. It has both vocational and academic programs, and arrangements with four-year colleges so that students can transfer for continued studies.
Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) is a public tribal land-grant community college with three locations in Nebraska: Macy on the Omaha Tribe reservation, Santee on the Santee Sioux reservation, and the urban South Sioux City.
The Treaty of Hellgate was a treaty agreement between the United States and the Bitterroot Salish, Upper Pend d'Oreille, and Lower Kutenai tribes. The treaty was signed at Hellgate on 16 July 1855. Signatories included Isaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian affairs and governor of Washington Territory; Victor, chief of the Bitterroot Salish; Alexander, chief of the Pend d'Oreilles; Michelle, chief of the Kutenais; and several subchiefs. The treaty was ratified by Congress, signed by President James Buchanan, and proclaimed on 18 April 1859. It established the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Luana K. Ross is a Native American sociologist of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, located at Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Montana in 1979, her master's degree from Portland State University, and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1992, before serving as faculty at the University of California at Davis and UC Berkeley. Since 1999 she has been a faculty member for the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She has also been an Adjunct Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington since 1999. In January 2010, she was appointed president of Salish Kootenai College, effective in July of that year. She resigned from the position in 2012.
Stone Child College (SCC) is a public tribal land-grant community college in Box Elder, Montana. SCC is affiliated with the Chippewa-Cree Tribe and located on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in north central Montana; it is one of seven Tribal Colleges in Montana. In 2008–09, SCC had an enrollment of 511, of whom 98 percent were American Indian descent; 20 percent were bilingual or of limited English proficiency. SCC students range in age from 17 to 72, with the average age at 30. The college retention rate is 47 percent and the graduation rate is 20 percent.
Corwin "Corky" Clairmont is a printmaker and conceptual and installation artist from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. Known for his high concept and politically charged works, Clairmont seeks to explore situations that affect Indian Country historically and in contemporary times.
I don't put work out that gives solutions but provokes questions. - Corky Clairmont
The Salish peoples are indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest, identified by their use of the Salish languages which diversified out of Proto-Salish between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Tohono Oʼodham Community College (TOCC) is a public tribal land-grant community college in Sells, Arizona. TOCC's student body is 88 percent American Indian/Alaskan Native. Tohono Oʼodham Community College serves approximately 216 students. The college's faculty and staff is 57 percent American Indian, half of whom are Oʼodham.
Kicking Horse Dam is a dam in Lake County, Montana.
Eldena Bear Don't Walk is an American lawyer, judge and politician. She is an enrolled citizen of the Crow Tribe of Montana and was the first woman to serve as the Chief Justice of that tribal court. She is also a descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. She has served as a judge for several other Tribal Courts. She is the chair of the Indian Law section of the State Bar of Montana.
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