By: Gresham Collom, Cherish Golden, and Misti Jeffers
This month’s post continues our blog series sharing information about financial aid opportunities for Indigenous students across the United States. We highlight a few of the 41 opportunities found in 5 Mountain West states.
In Colorado, we identified one state-level and six institutional funding opportunities.
We identified 11 institutional and one state financial aid opportunity in Idaho.
Montana has one system level and three institutional level funding opportunities.
Utah has five institutional opportunities.
Wyoming offers 13 funding opportunities at the institutional level.
In early 2025, students will have access to our publicly available interactive website tool to search for funding opportunities they are eligible for. For a current list of all funding opportunities we have identified, please refer to our draft dataset. Whether you are a student, parent, or guardian looking at institutions, or a support person such as a mentor, teacher, or counselor, we encourage you to pay close attention to the details of these opportunities to help further guide the college search process.
Colorado
With the 2021 statewide implementation of the Colorado American Indian Tribes In-State Tuition Act, all Colorado public institutions are required to offer in-state tuition to out-of-state residents who are members of Tribes with historical ties to Colorado. Students are required to submit an application and proof of tribal affiliation. We encourage students who qualify for in-state tuition under this policy to also explore other state-level and institutional-level aid. Most notably, this Act allows qualified students to also apply for the College Opportunity Fund (COF) Stipend.
The University of Denver offers four financial aid opportunities, the DU Community Scholarship, the DU Empowerment Scholarship, the Cheyanne and Arapaho Tuition Scholarship, and the Sand Creek Descendant Scholarship. The Community and Empowerment scholarships are both described as competitive and requiring “commitment and involvement in Native American and Indigenous communities.” Demonstrated financial need is required by the Empowerment scholarship, while need is considered but not required for the Community scholarship. The Community scholarship covers the standard costs of attendance, including tuition, fees, food and housing, and books. The Empowerment scholarship covers the full costs of tuition.
Metropolitan State University, also located in Denver, offers the Indigenous and Native Peoples’ Grant. This last-dollar program provides Colorado residents, who are also enrolled in a federally recognized Tribal nation, funding to cover tuition and fees.
The University of Colorado Boulder offers the Native and Indigenous Student Scholarship for both resident ($5,000/year) and nonresident students ($15,000/year). Nonresident students who are eligible for in-state tuition under the Colorado American Indian Tribes In-State Tuition Act will only receive the resident award amount.
Idaho
Boise State University offers the Native American Scholarship. The program offers discounted tuition to in-state, enrolled members of the five federally recognized Tribes in Idaho, reducing their tuition per credit hour to $0. Students are still responsible for paying fees. Through the Native American Nonresident Scholarship, Boise State also offers discounted tuition for up to 10 non-resident students enrolled in specific Tribal Nations with ties to Idaho. Students can be part-time or full-time and undergraduate or graduate students, but must be degree-seeking.
Idaho State University offers a similar scholarship program, the Native American Tuition and Fee Program, which reduces tuition to $60 per credit hour.
Montana
Montana offers a system-level funding opportunity, the Indian Tuition Waiver, that requires all campuses of the University of Montana System to waive tuition for students who have 1/4 blood quantum or are enrolled members of a state or federally recognized Tribe located within the Montana state borders and have unmet financial need. This policy only waives tuition, not additional fees. In the 2021-22 academic year, 1,270 American Indian students benefited from this policy!
Montana also has three financial aid opportunities across two institutions for Indigenous students.
Montana State University (MSU) and The University of Montana (UM) both participate in the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) Scholarship Program, which provides support to graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The intent of this program is to increase the number of Indigenous students who receive degrees beyond the bachelor’s level. For recipients, this scholarship provides a total of $20,000 for masters students and $40,000 for doctoral students.
Eligibility and requirements for this program slightly differ by institution.
For MSU, students must be U.S. citizens and identify as Indigenous through any of the following demographics: Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Original peoples of Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. In addition, documentation must be provided confirming enrollment in a federally recognized or state recognized tribe. If students are not able to provide this documentation, a written statement must be sent detailing how the student is affiliated with an Indigenous tribe or community. Specific details are not provided on which documentation must be provided to show proof of enrollment, nor how the written statement should be formatted, so we cannot assess whether either would be an administrative burden for students.
For UM, in addition to providing proof of Indigenous ancestry, students must also have a confirmed research advisor and have secured a teaching assistantship (TA) or research assistantship (RA) as deemed appropriate by the institution’s policy on assistantships.
The Tribal Homeland Scholarship Waiver is specific to MSU and waives non-resident tuition for out-of-state students with Indigenous ties to the state. Students must be enrolled in or affiliated with any of the tribes that have ancestral and/or symbolic ties to Montana. Students must also provide proof of enrollment or affiliation through documentation such as a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB), tribal enrollment card, a CDIB for a relative (e.g., parent), or other forms as deemed appropriate by MSU’s Office of Financial Aid Services. Students belonging to another Tribe not listed are encouraged to contact the office to assess eligibility. As Montana has a handful of tuition waivers for Indigenous students, it is important to keep in mind that recipients of this particular award may not use it with other state waivers, nor other MSU waivers.
Utah
Utah currently has five institutional opportunities at four institutions. We highlight Weber State University, which has the most opportunities of the institutions, having two current scholarships available.
Weber State University (WSU) offers the Native American Scholarship and the Native American Transfer Scholarship. The Native American Scholarship, which is awarded all four years (eight semesters) for recipients, waives 50% of in-state tuition and fees. Available to new incoming students, the eligibility for this scholarship includes having a 3.10 minimum high school GPA or earning a 21 minimum composite score on the ACT and having membership in one of the following tribes:
- Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation
- Navajo Nation
- Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation of Utah (Washakie)
- Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah
- Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah
- Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Hopi and Zuni
Once enrolled at WSU, recipients must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 and be enrolled full-time (12 credits) to continue being eligible for the scholarship each semester.
The Native American Transfer Scholarship, offered to new incoming transfer students, also waives 50% of in-state tuition and fees. This award is available for three years (six semesters) to recipients and eligibility includes having a 3.00 minimum transfer GPA and having membership in any of the tribes listed above for the Native American Scholarship. Like the Native American Scholarship, once recipients of this scholarship are enrolled at WSU, they must also maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.50 and be enrolled full-time (12 credits) to continue being eligible for the scholarship each semester.
Wyoming
Wyoming, having the most institutional-level opportunities of the states in this blog, offers 13 funding opportunities at two institutions: Central Wyoming College (5) and University of Wyoming (8). We’ve chosen to cover a few opportunities across the institutions in-depth, and encourage readers to refer to our full list of funding opportunities to learn more about the rest.
Central Wyoming College (CWC), a two-year community college, currently offers the Wind River Tribes Educational Endowment Fund Scholarship. This opportunity is available to Indigenous students enrolled full-time (12 credits) at CWC. Other requirements include having a minimum high school or college cumulative GPA of 2.50, participating in 10 hours of approved community service each semester, and having ties to the Arapaho Tribe or Shoshone Tribe.
One thing to note about this scholarship is that students must provide written acknowledgement that they will repay the scholarship if they do not receive a degree within three years or if eligibility requirements are not maintained. Initial failure to maintain eligibility requirements will result in being placed on probation and the scholarship not being awarded.
With the college offering several scholarships for students that are deemed “inclusive,” we wonder why a handful of them, like the Wind River Tribes Educational Endowment Fund Scholarship, have administrative burdens for eligibility and/or “punishment” for not maintaining eligibility instead of support to get students back on track should they need it. It is likely institutions receiving private funds from donors for named scholarships may also be required to adopt donor parameters for how the award is designed. We encourage private donors to take these issues of administrative burden into consideration and work with institutions to design awards that center the needs and lived realities of students.
The University of Wyoming has an impressive total of eight institutional-level funding opportunities available for Indigenous students. What especially stands out is that five of the awards are for students affiliated with the Wind River Reservation. With this reservation being the largest in the state, it is not surprising there is ample support for its students.
Unfortunately, information about the funding opportunities , including requirements and criteria to maintain awards if a recipient, is vague. This is a cause for concern, as the lack of readily available information could be an administrative burden for students and families, particularly if potential financial aid is driving the college search.
Call to Action: Three ways you can support our project
As we await the release of our publicly available website tool for students, there’s three ways you can stay involved:
- Access our draft dataset of currently identified financial aid opportunities for Indigenous students. If you see a financial aid opportunity that is no longer active, or if you are aware of any opportunities we did not include in our list, please email us to let us know!
- Keep an eye out for future snapshots throughout the year. Subscribe to the SSTAR Lab newsletter to have updates sent directly to your inbox!
- Share our posts with your networks, especially students who may be eligible for funding opportunities.
Please feel free to reach out to our project manager, Misti Jeffers (misti.jeffers@wisc.edu), if you have any questions on the project!
*Please note, as we continue to reach out to administrators directly to verify our understanding of these financial aid policies and programs, information described in this post may change prior to the release of the final dataset.