Mission
The aims and goals of NAES College were and continue to be a revolutionary approach to higher education. Through the creation of a college by and for Native Americans, NAES College emphasized a community-based approach to learning that provided incoming students with credit for their life and work experiences while building the next generation of leaders. What follows is the text from an original 1983 document—“The Statement of the Case for NAES College: Building a Model for Higher Indian Education”—expressing both the mission and philosophy of the institution.
To develop within the Indian community a system of higher education with a degree granting process relevant to community needs and processes.
PhilosophyA broad humanistic view is held which encompasses both the diversity and the commonality of the Indian experience of tribes, Indian communities, and American society. In the academic community the foundation of knowledge exists without question or commentary. However, to develop a model of higher Indian education which extends to the tribal world requires change—an integration of co-equal relationship between tribal and academic knowledge bases. To carry this out, NAES places a primary emphasis upon the intellectual and philosophical traditions of the tribal and Indian communities as the primary framework in which the universe of experience, learning, and instruction holds value for the Indian student.
From the beginning, NAES emphasized the importance of tribal knowledge. Indian leadership should know as much as they can about their own community. Largely what was offered in any university was from perspectives outside of the tribe and it often described the commonalities of the Indian experience in American history which were not based on the definitions by which actual tribes lived. Tribal knowledge is rarely articulated by the academic community. It is fundamental in the education of the NAES student.
Background: Why a Tribal College Was Needed
The idea behind NAES College grew out of a simple observation: Indian communities were asking for leaders trained to serve them, yet conventional universities rarely prepared students for that work. Mainstream curricula treated tribal nations as a chapter within American history rather than as living political, cultural, and intellectual communities with their own ways of knowing. Students who left home to attend such institutions often found that what they studied had little connection to the problems waiting for them on return.
NAES College answered this gap by building an institution around the community instead of asking the community to adapt to the institution. Its founding purpose, stated in the mission above, was to create a system of higher education whose degree-granting process was relevant to community needs and processes. For the story of how the college took shape over time, see the History page.
Many of the students it served were adults who had already spent years working, raising families, and contributing to their communities. Traditional admissions models often overlooked this experience. The college was designed to recognize it.
Principles in Practice
The philosophy of co-equal tribal and academic knowledge bases was not meant to remain an abstraction. It shaped how the college approached nearly every part of its work. Several guiding ideas can be drawn from the statement of the case:
- Tribal knowledge as a foundation. Learning begins from the intellectual and philosophical traditions of the student's own community rather than treating them as an optional supplement.
- Credit for life and work experience. What students have already learned through employment, community service, and cultural participation is recognized as legitimate learning.
- Relevance to community needs. Programs of study are expected to connect with the realities that tribal and urban Indian communities face.
- Leadership development. Education is understood as preparation for taking responsibility within a community, not only as personal advancement.
Taken together, these principles meant that a degree from NAES College was intended to signal both academic accomplishment and readiness to serve. The curriculum and its structure are described further under Academics.
A Community-Based Approach to Learning
Because the college placed such weight on community, learning did not take place only in a classroom. Students were encouraged to see their families, elders, workplaces, and tribal institutions as sources of instruction. Knowledge held by elders and culture bearers was treated as a genuine resource, worthy of the same respect given to published scholarship.
This approach also changed the relationship between student and teacher. Instead of a one-directional transfer of information, learning was framed as a shared process in which students brought expertise of their own. A student working in a tribal government office, a health program, or a language project could connect that work directly to study, and the college treated those connections as central rather than incidental.
Such an arrangement required faculty and staff who understood both worlds. Many were themselves members of Indian communities with deep experience in tribal affairs as well as academic training. More about those who shaped the college can be found on the People page.
Integrating Two Knowledge Traditions
The mission speaks of an integration of tribal and academic knowledge bases as co-equal partners. This is a demanding standard. It asks that academic disciplines be examined through tribal perspectives just as tribal topics are examined through scholarly methods, with neither automatically placed above the other.
In the original statement, the academic community is described as treating its foundation of knowledge as beyond question or commentary. NAES College proposed a different stance: that a model of higher Indian education reaching into the tribal world requires change, and that the change begins by acknowledging that tribal communities have long maintained their own systems of thought, governance, history, and teaching.
For students, this meant they were not asked to set aside who they were in order to succeed academically. Instead, their identity and community knowledge became part of the intellectual work itself.
Looking Ahead: The Mission's Continuing Meaning
The statement describes aims that "were and continue to be" revolutionary, and that wording matters. The mission was never intended as a historical artifact. It was meant as a standing commitment: that Indian people should have access to higher education on terms that honor their communities, and that the next generation of leaders should be prepared with a deep understanding of their own tribal worlds.
Readers who want to understand how that commitment translated into programs, people, and milestones can explore the related pages on History, Academics, and People. Together they show how a philosophy set down in 1983 became a living institution.