Foreword

About 21 years ago Shelly Lowe (Navajo) and George McClellan, both doctoral students at the University of Arizona, were beginning to think about our dissertations, and we knew we wanted our topics to be related to supporting the success of Native students in higher education and were talking about the scarcity of literature in this area, particularly literature centering Native voices and Native ways of being. Shelly and George invited Mary Jo Tippeconnic Fox (Comanche), one of their faculty members, into the conversation with the thought she might know about work the two had overlooked, but Mary Jo confirmed their original impression. The discussion amongst the three went further than a lament of the dearth of such literature; we talked about what that literature should look like. Our wish list, developed over a series of chats, included a project that centered Native experiences and voices and would be accessible to practitioners, helpful to scholars, and affordable for everyone (making a monograph a desirable format). We imagined including perspectives of Native students, families, tribal leaders, staff, and faculty. We also believed the book should be sure to include perspectives from folks involved in tribally controlled colleges and universities as well as other institutional settings. Having gone so far in conceptualizing what a monograph might look like, we decided to submit a proposal to the New Directions in Student Services monograph series. John Schuh and Elizabeth Whitt were the series editors at the time, and they have our thanks forever for being champions of the project at a time when most editors and publishers either did not think about Native education or believed there was not much of a market in that area. John was in touch to let us know we were being offered the opportunity to publish the monograph we had imagined. While Mary Jo, Shelly, and I planned to author a few chapters ourselves, we began reaching out to people we thought could write on several of the topics to be included—Donna Brown (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), Raymond Austin (Navajo), Gregory Cajete (Tewa), Perry Horse (Kiowa), James Larimore (Comanche), and Robert Martin (Cherokee). There was one more person we invited to play a very special role. We wanted and needed a respected elder to share a prayer for the monograph that it be offered and received in a good way by all and helped the young people, and we all very much wanted that elder to be Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne). The reactions to our invitations from everyone we asked were truly heartwarming. Not one person spoke about being too busy or not sure they were the right person. Instead, they all recognized the need and greeted the opportunity with enthusiasm. Their concern for the people, particularly the young people, made the monograph possible. The monograph became available in 2005 in the late Spring, and it was received well by Native students, staff, and faculty and non-Native allies. The sales were very strong, and our belief is that those sales helped open the door with publishers for a number of excellent books that appeared in the following years. Those books also sold well, and it is heartening for those interested in Indigenous issues in higher education to see strong scholarship authored and edited by Indigenous people. In addition, the monograph quickly became a source of information and energy, helping to fuel the effort underway by a group of Native and non-Native practitioners and scholars to improve support at colleges and universities for Indigenous students, staff, and faculty. That effort highlighted four interwoven strategies: (1) share Indigenous-centered information and practices related to access, affordability, and success; (2) create Indigenous spaces in existing higher education professional associations; (3) encourage new scholarship centering Indigenous perspectives and voices; and (4) recruit and nurture Indigenous students in higher education graduate studies programs or in programs at both the master's and doctoral levels as these people are the future practitioners and scholars. The effort, dubbed Indigenizing higher education by the people working together on the various strategies, has seen significant successes in the sharing of information, building presence in professional associations, encouraging exciting new Indigenous scholarship, and helping grow the number of Indigenous practitioners and scholars. Unfortunately, the one place where we do not yet see the progress that we hoped to see when we first started discussing the original monograph over twenty years ago is in access, affordability, and success for Indigenous students. Native Americans remain woefully underrepresented among students, staff, and faculty in higher education. Modest gains we had seen were washed away in the COVID pandemic, and there are no signs to date of recovery of even those modest gains. Whether for philosophical or theatrical reasons, efforts in higher education to address systemic inequities are under attack in many states across the United States and in other countries. Too many college and university campuses are not welcoming, and some are overtly hostile. This while funding for tribally controlled colleges and universities continues to lag well behind where it ought to be and needs to be. We were surprised when told by colleagues and friends their proposal to update the original monograph on its 20th anniversary had been accepted. Could 20 years have gone by so quickly? While there have been changes for the better over the years, much is still to be done. There continues to be a need for sharing current and forward-looking Indigenous-centered information and practices to support access, affordability, and success for Indigenous students, staff, and faculty in higher education. We see the need for the monograph to be updated with fresh insights and experiences to highlight the progress made and to reframe the challenges still facing us. Core issues of student success are at the center of this new iteration of the monograph as evidenced in the chapters on Indigenous student identity (Oxendine and Waterman), Indigenous student pathways (Poolaw, Sanders, and Garland), the practice of Indigenous Student Affairs (Philpot, Hancock, Strass, and Bazemore-James), and the role of Indigenous scholarship providers and financial aid (Mosconi, Monette-Barajas, and Garland; Jeffers and Collom). We are delighted by the chapters highlighting populations not adequately addressed in the original monograph. These include Alaska Native students (Haynes), Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students (Kahunawaika'ala Wright and Saelua), Native graduate students (Bazemore-James, Collins, et al.), and Native alumni (Little and Red Shirt-Shaw). New chapters on programming areas including Indigenous Student Affairs networks (Begay, Bazemore-James, Philpot, Villegas-Frazier, and Smith) and Native student participation in leadership development (Taub, Oxendine, and Oxendine) are also wonderful additions to the literature. Today and for tomorrow, I ask blessings upon those who have written this book. Continue to bless them with good hearts, great minds, and long spirits. I ask your blessings upon their thoughts and words that appear on the leaves of the tree of life. They are concerned for the education of those who are young to the earth journey or who have yet to come to this miracle place called earth (Mann, 2005, p. 5) Finally, we thank all readers of the original monograph, new monograph, or both. We hope the ideas, insights, and information shared inspire you to make a positive difference in the lives of those around you. The power in the words is only fully realized when you put them into action.