Academics
As stated in the 1983 report “The Statement of the Case for NAES College: Building a Model for Higher Indian Education,” students, faculty, and staff at NAES participated in an educational experience that provided “leadership training and skills to individuals, who in turn use[d] them to effect change and improvement in their community.” In addition, and very importantly, all academic “knowledge within the NAES framework emerge[d] from and [was] harmonic with the Indian community’s cultural system.” In order to share more of just how the NAES mission and philosophy was put into practice, this page provides an introduction to the academic life of NAES College, including its academic program, student population, examples of courses, and a directory of student-produced “field projects.”
NAES College was, in many ways, a response to U.S. relocation policies of the 1950s that saw thousands of Native Americans from across the country arriving in Chicago. However, NAES pushed back against the assimilationist goals of these policies, stating that while there was “a need to unify the numerous tribal peoples who find themselves, suddenly, constituting the same community,” it was of vital importance that “NAES does not disturb patterns of cohesiveness on the reservation, but rather builds vital links between the reservation and urban communities by training those leaders who are members of both communities and who understand the special needs of each and developing dynamics between the two.”
With this goal in mind, NAES College strove for an experienced, diverse, and committed student population. Students were typically in their 30s (though ranged from 24-62), and might have had families, worked for tribes or in the community, and previously attended college. For instance, in 1983 the Santo Domingo Pueblo had a population of 1,800 people and students at the NAES Santo Domingo study site were employed by the tribal government operations, worked as tribal officers, and held positions in the county schools. The vast majority of NAES students were Native American and represented dozens of tribes, but the diversity of the student population also included Indigenous (e.g. Maya, M’chigeeng First Nation), Latinx, and students from other backgrounds. Lastly, all students were required to commit to the development of tribal knowledge during their time at NAES and to seek and hold leadership positions upon graduation.
The NAES College academic program was rigorous, with students expected to work and study full time, ultimately “develop[ing] study plans that maximize[d] the inter-relationship of their profession, the community, and formal academic study.” While the program changed over the years, it orginally consisted of six core areas of knowledge: Tribal/Community Knowledge, External Tribal/Community Studies, American Indian Studies, Regional American Studies, Universal Knowledge, and Professional/Technical Skills and Knowledge. NAES embodied its dedication to being a student-centered and community-based educational institution by emphasizing three forms of instruction in the classroom: faculty/student directed (“tutorials”), student directed (“independent study”), and faculty directed (“core seminars” and “special courses”). This framework and dedication provided students with a lot of autonomy over their education, as well as powerful co-learning experiences with their professors in and beyond the classroom.
In the ClassroomNAES College offered a tremendous variety of classes across a number of disciplines such as art, music, ecology, history, literature, languages, business, and more. Taught predominantly by Native faculty, classes at NAES often combined tribal and academic knowledge while emphasizing a form of learning that was highly collaborative and community-based. As some former students mentioned at a NAES event in 2019, classes were often taught “in the round,” creating a communal, conversational, respectful, and engaging experience for all involved.
NAES College students completed Field Projects, a culminating research thesis that concluded their degrees. The projects represent an exciting multitude of subjects, methods, and genres: students produced tribal histories, linguistic guides and texts, course syllabuses, original creative work, bibliographies, and studies of community resources in Chicago. Students researched tribal colleges, created guides for tribal libraries, proposed implementations for new federal policies like the Indian Child Welfare Act, and composed histories of Chicago-area organizations such as Indian Health Services and NAES itself. They wrote reports on tribal nations in Chicago, from Winnebagos to Menominees, and they wrote their own autobiographies and creative works for children. They conducted interviews with fellow tribal members, drew on their own experiences to write autobiographies, and related tribal histories passed on from family members. In addition to functioning as research capstones, the field projects produce scholarship that reflects its authors’ experiences and expertise and that benefits their communities.
From the earliest project, on “History and Indian Leadership” by Willard LaMere (Winnebago) in 1976, to the most recent project, completed in 2003, the projects emphasize the primacy of scholarship by and for Native people, while also demonstrating the utility of that scholarship—and their own research—for other Native people. They participated in making a college curriculum created by and for Native people, one that strengthened Native identity, languages, family relations, leaders, and organizations. Julia Brown Wolf represents this approach to education in her project, “Learning Styles of American Indian Children,” Julia Brown Wolf (Sioux) represents this approach to education in her 1986 project, “Learning Styles of American Indian Children,” where she writes: “Education is communication, and what really needs to be communicated to Indians are not the facts of white culture but the idea that Indians can learn from whites without committing psychological or ethnic suicide.” NAES provided a space where Native people learned from and for each other, a space where they worked for the health of their lives, families, and community. The field projects reclaim education from its history of boarding schools and forced assimilation, grounding it instead in Native experiences and histories, and responding to current issues with plans to address them in ways most beneficial to the community in Chicago. As LaMere put it in his project, “The Indians have lived in two worlds which, by design, were wholly unequal.” The NAES field projects undertook the work not just of studying how those worlds were made unequal and working toward making them equal, but also of making a world specifically for and by Native people.
If you are interested in reading any of the student field projects, they are available at the University of Chicago Library Special Collections Research Center.
History of the American Indian Health Service of Chicago, Inc., 1974-1978 Ellen Cortes (Winnebago/Chippewa), NAES/Chicago, 1982
A Biography of James Kipp, 1788-1880 James D. Tater Stiffarm (Blackfeet), NAES/Fort Peck, 1984
Environmental Study for the Fort Peck Reservation J. Dallas C. Gudgell (Sioux), NAES/Fort Peck, 1985
Spirituality and Recovery from Alcoholism Timothy L. Vermillion (Sioux), NAES/Chicago, 1987
Indian Taxation Robert Longtree, Sr. (Sioux), NAES/Fort Peck, 1991
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Breaking the Cycle Lisa M. Nahquaddy (Menominee), NAES/Menominee, 1991
Traditional Education vs. Non-Traditional Education Mary Ellen Frislie (Sioux), NAES/Fort Peck, 1992
Wild Life Management on the Fort Peck Reservation Henri G. Headdress (Assiniboine), NAES/Fort Peck, 1992
Management Systems for the Menominee Big Drum People, Inc. Aurelia S. Awononhopay (Menominee), NAES/Menominee, 1992
A Survey of Three Clan Systems: The Menominee, Ojibwa and Potawatomi Lisa R. Johnson, NAES/Menominee, 1992
Use of Legends in the Classroom Rosanna R. Schanandore (Menominee), NAES/Menominee, 1992
Sexual Assault: From Victim to Survivor Renee R. House (Oneida), NAES/Chicago, 1992
Native Americans in U.S. Military Service: Always Ignored, Always Shining Gerald (Jerry) C. Northrop (Chippewa), NAES/Twin Cities, 1993
Do They Have Beer in Heaven? Joseph Big Bear (Ojibwa), NAES/Twin Cities, 1993
Effects of the Horse and the Gun on the Teton’s Western Movement: 1770-1873 Richard A. Longee (Fort Peck Tribes), NAES/Fort Peck, 1995
Establishing the Fort Peck Community College Day Care Center Mary L. Plante (Sioux), NAES/Fort Peck, 1995
Historic River Drive Sites on the Wolf Rebecca D. Alegria (Menominee), NAES/Menominee, 1995
Hudson Venture Charles D. Fox (Sokaogon Chippewa), NAES/Menominee, 1995
Environmental/Cultural Liaison Educator, Protector, Interpreter David W. Oshkosh, Sr. (Menominee), NAES/Menominee, 1995
A Search for Tribal Identity: A Brief, Comparative Exploration of Two Cultures Joseph Miller, Jr. (Assiniboine), NAES/Fort Peck, 1996
Survival of American Indian Health Service of Chicago, Inc.: Long Range Plan and Short Planned Approach Amelia Ortiz (Ho-Chunck), NAES Chicago, 1997
Where Have All the Children Gone? The Effects of Domestic Violence on Children of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation Richard K. Jackson (Assiniboine), NAES/Fort Peck, 1998
Health Care: A Holistic Approach Rhonda G. Michell (Blackfeet), NAES/Fort Peck, 1998
Growing into a Career Willard Male Bear, Sr. (Sioux), NAES/Twin Cities, 1998
Indian Child Welfare: A Violation of Trust? Antonia Wheeler Sheehy, NAES/Chicago, 1999
Inter-Generational Sin Roxanne T. Bourneau, NAES/Fort Peck, 1999
Diabetes and Native Americans Royce A. Jackson, NAES/Chicago, 1999
A Narrative of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux, 1886-1999 Kenny Shields Jr., NAES/Fort Peck, 1999
Perceptions of the Effects of Gaming on a Dakota Community: A Survey of the Upper Sioux Community Robert A. Fluto (Mdewakanton Dakota), NAES/Twin Cities, 1999
Identity: Societal Perception and the Impact on Self-Definition Lynette M. Sylvain, NAES/Twin Cities, 1999
Granny Mohawk’s Land Linda J. Mohawk-Katchenago, NAES/Menominee, 2000
Child Sexual Abuse: Protect Our Children From It Cheryl A. Warrington, NAES/Menominee, 2000
Connecting Green Building Design to American Indian Values Sharon A. Taylor, NAES/Chicago, 2000
In the Life of George Edward Vigue Margaret R. Wilber, NAES/Menominee, 2000
Nuniwarmiut of Nunivak Island, Alaska: A Definition Paper on Self-Governance Angelina L. Santa Ana, NAES/Chicago, 2000
Life in the Boarding Schools Cora C. Pecore, NAES/Menominee, 2001
Earl Wescott, Sr. (1926- ): Menominee Elder Carol Barnes, NAES/Menominee, 2001
Substance Abuse in Chicago Native American Community: A Qualitative Study Using the Numerical Group Method Linda D.M. Marotta, NAES/Chicago, 2003
The Life and Family of Louise “Chemon” Amour: A Menominee Medicine Woman Crystal I. Caldwell, NAES/Menominee, 2003
Learning Beyond the Campus
Because NAES College was designed around the idea that knowledge lives in communities as much as in books, much of a student's learning happened outside the classroom. Students were working professionals, tribal officers, and community members, and their jobs, families, and responsibilities were treated as part of the curriculum rather than as obstacles to it. A study plan might connect a student's work in a health clinic, a school, or a tribal government office with readings, discussions, and writing that deepened that experience.
This approach also meant that elders, community leaders, and tribal knowledge-holders were recognized as teachers. Their contributions helped shape what counted as legitimate knowledge, and students were encouraged to bring what they learned from them back into seminars and into their written work.
How a Student's Path Took Shape
Each student began by building a personal study plan with faculty guidance. Rather than moving through a fixed list of required courses, students identified goals for their communities and their careers, then chose combinations of tutorials, independent study, core seminars, and special courses that supported those goals. The six areas of knowledge gave this plan a shared structure, ensuring that tribal and community knowledge sat alongside broader academic and professional preparation.
- Planning: students and advisors mapped learning goals to community needs.
- Practice: coursework was tied to work and community responsibilities.
- Reflection: students regularly discussed their progress with faculty and peers.
- Culmination: the Field Project brought these threads together in a single piece of original research or creative work.
Faculty and Co-Learning
Faculty at NAES were often practitioners, artists, tribal members, and community leaders as well as scholars. Because many classes were small and conversational, instructors learned alongside their students, and the line between teacher and learner could be deliberately blurred. This co-learning model reflected the college's commitment to respect and reciprocity, and it helped students see themselves as contributors to knowledge rather than only recipients of it. To learn more about the individuals who made this possible, visit the People page.
Academics in the Context of the Mission
The academic program cannot be separated from the larger purpose of the institution. Every course, project, and study plan was meant to strengthen leadership in both reservation and urban Native communities. For more on the ideas guiding this work, see the Mission page, and for the story of how the college grew from the needs of Chicago's Native community, see the History page.