Higher Education: Background and Implications for American Indians.

Five basic discussions on post secondary education of American Indian students are presented in this paper. These are: (1) Are Indian studies programs in non-Indian colleges and universities providing quality education for Indian students? (2) Are Indian community colleges on the reservations and in the Indian communities providing a viable alternative to a quality education? (3) Where does the primary authority rest for Indian post secondary education--in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or in the Office of Education under Health, Education, and Welfare (OE--HEW)? (4) Indian students lose out financially and programmatically in minority studies programs when they compete with Black and Chicano students; and (5) There must be further office and agency (BIA-Interior and OE-HEW) agreements on higher education function and entitlements. Four general recommendations are presented, e.g., there should be at least 1 national Indian university with appropriate graduate schools in conjunction with the proposed Research Institute. Specific recommendations are made for Indian studies in non-Indian colleges and universities, and community colleges on the reservations. Also included are 5 statistical appendixes. (FF)