Tribal colleges are a unique resource — and they're under threat

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College has classes on everything from Native American studies to gardening to equine sciences to the Hidatsa language. Like other tribal colleges and universities (aka TCUs), it's a space where students can get their degrees while steeped in Indigenous traditions and learning techniques. But since the start of this presidential administration, funding for these colleges has been precarious, and tribal college administrators have been left scrambling to make sure they can continue with business as usual. So this week on the show, we're diving deep into what makes tribal colleges unique — and what these spaces mean to the students, faculty and staff who work there.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:16.4	Hey everyone, you're listening to Code Switch. I'm B.A. Parker.
0:21.6	And today I'm joined by Graham Lee Brewer, who covers Indian Country for the Associated Press.
0:27.4	Hey, Graham.
0:28.0	Hey.
0:28.8	All right, so what do you have for us today?
0:31.3	I want to talk about indigenous knowledge and education and the small network of tribally led colleges across Indian country.
0:37.9	They're doing important and really vital work to not only provide higher education,
0:41.9	but to also pass down and preserve indigenous worldviews and lifeways that stretch back thousands of years.
0:47.8	And to illustrate all of this, I want to take you to a very special garden
0:51.2	on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.
0:54.4	It's called the Four Sisters Garden.
0:56.5	All right, Graham, take us there.
0:59.2	Support for NPR, and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
1:04.3	RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.
1:11.0	Learn more at RWJF.org.
1:18.7	There's some of the squash. Yay!
1:21.9	On a chilly morning earlier this fall, the Hedatsa squash caught Ruth Dela Cruz's eye.
1:26.3	They usually look kind of like a pumpkin, and the meat is really a dark, rich, orange color,
1:37.3	and sweet flavor.
	...

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