Increases Reported in Indian Enrollment for Higher Education and Tribal Scholarship Aids

Enrollment of American Indians for education beyond high school has more than doubled in the past six years and Indian tribes are now spending over half a million dollars annually from their own funds on scholarship aids for their young people, the Department of the Interior reported today.

In the 1954-55 academic year approximately 2,300 Indian boys and girls attended college or advanced vocational school. In the 1960-61 academic year, which ended last June, reports from the reservations indicate that the number was almost 4900, or more than twice as many as six years before.

Last March the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana appropriated $16,000 for educational grants to eligible members of the tribe. The Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico last year established a $25,000 trust fund for scholarships for higher education. These two additions bring to 29 the number of tribes providing funds for the advanced education of their most promising youth. The amounts annually available range from a few hundred dollars to the income from a $10,000,000 trust fund established by the Navajo Tribe of Arizona and New Mexico in 1957-59. In addition a scholarship fund for California Indians, resulting from a bequest by an Indian, Maple Creek Willie, became available last July.

The 29 tribes, by States, are:

Most of both the annual and trust funds have been voted by the tribes from monies received from the sale of oil or mineral rights, income from timberland or livestock, or from Government awards.

These 29 tribes conduct their scholarship programs through committees which carefully consider applications and closely follow the academic careers of the successful applicants. Terms and conditions vary with each tribe. Scholarships are ordinarily provided for students in nursing, secretarial and other vocational schools as well as at liberal arts and technical colleges.

When Maple Creek Willie, a member of the Mad River Indian Band of California, died in 1937, it was discovered that he had left his 160 acres of allotted land in Humboldt County to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In November 1959 the allotment was sold by the Government with the understanding that the proceeds were to be used to establish a fund for the granting of scholarships to worthy members of California Indian tribal groups. On July 6, 1961 the Maple Creek Willie Indian Scholarship Fund was formally established by the California Department of Education, and in August a selection board in Sacramento chose 14 Indian boys and girls to be the first beneficiaries. The fund amounts to about $130,000, and it is planned to distribute it over a ten-year period.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs also provides a number of annual scholarship grants to Indian high school students on a competitive basis. These grants may not be used for expenses in sectarian schools and are awarded only to reservation students who have one-fourth or more Indian blood. In the 1960-61 academic year Federal grants totaling approximately $250,000 were made to 623 Indian boys and girls, the average amount being $388.

Another Federal program provides "working scholarships" in Indian boarding schools situated near colleges or universities. These aids enable students to earn room and board at the boarding school in return for 14 hour of work per week. For example, Indian students who wish to study at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, may in this way obtain their room and board by living and working at Haskell Institute in the same city.

The States of Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Alaska also have special scholarship programs for Indian students.

The largest nongovernmental and nontribal source of scholarships for Indians is the service conducted cooperatively by the Congregational Christian Churches of America, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Association on American Indian Affairs. Several western universities and a few eastern universities offer special scholarships to Indians. Probably the largest individual awards during the past academic year were the "opportunity fellowships” given by the John Hay Whitney Foundation to four Indian students for graduate work in the fields of social work, government, history, and languages.