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Native American College Grant
For many years, Native Americans had educational and financial hardships and did not have the same education opportunities as many other minority groups. In order to help Native Americans further their education and meet their full potential, many non-profit, private and public organizations and institutions, along with the U.S. government, created numerous grant programs to offer financial aid and help fund their college education. In order for students to be eligible for many of the grants and scholarships available, they must have a CIB or Certificate of Indian Blood to prove their ethnicity and be part of a federally recognized tribe. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created a tribal college located on an Indian reservation and controlled by the tribes to service tribal members. This was to help preserve the Native American culture and language by incorporating these into their curriculum. For information on government loans, visit Grants.gov.
They created the American Indian College Fund mainly to provide support to the Native American colleges with scholarships and grants for students wanting to attend. There are funds available from the private sector to Native American students attending higher learning institutes through the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which is the American Indian College Funds sister organization. These funds also help with capital construction, cultural preservation projects and other programs relative to Native American tribal colleges. The American Indian College Fund gives each of the tribal colleges annual, direct scholarship support along with grants to American Indian students attending both selected mainstream and tribal colleges.
Numerous grant programs are available to Native American students today through associations, professional groups, and private organizations. They offer generous scholarships and grants as a means to attract more minority students including Native Americans to their fields by providing large grants for research and schooling, especially in fields such as computer science, engineering and nursing. Some grant programs pay the Native American student's college grant in exchange for agreeing to work in disadvantaged areas for a specific length of time after graduation.
Some of the grants available to Native American students include the American Baptist Financial Aid Program Native American Grants. This is an annual grant for undergraduates of from one to two thousand dollars for members of a U.S.A congregation/American Baptist Church. To qualify for this grant, Native American students must attend a college or university in the United States full time. In addition to Native Americans, Eskimo students are also eligible for this loan. Each year the Koniag Education Career Development Grant awards two grants to the Alaskan Native freshmen. Annually, the Menominee Indian Tribe Adult Vocational Training Program awards fifty to seventy Menominee tribal members grants to Menominee students enrolled in technical college. The Tyonek Native Corporation Scholarship and Grant Fund award one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars annually to various Alaska Native graduate or undergraduate students attending any United States college on a full time basis.
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