U.S. Sen. Steve Daines announced more than $500,000 in federal funds for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to bolster their educational programs and provide additional tools to advance self-determination in an educational setting.
The Salish Kootenai College was awarded $220,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s the Tribal College Research Grants Program, which was created by the 2014 Farm Bill. The tribe was separately awarded $287,769 through the Department of Education’s State-Tribal Education Partnership (STEP) program.
“These grants will provide Salish Kootenai College and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes with additional resources to better serve students,” Daines stated. “This additional support will help students attending schools on the Flathead Reservation have access to the job-training and educational services they need, while incorporating CSKT culture, language and history.”
The TCRGP program was designed to assist 1994 Land-Grant Institutions — tribal colleges — in building institutional research capacity through applied projects that address student educational needs and solve community, reservation or regional problems.
The STEP program provides funding to five Native American communities in Idaho, Montana and Oklahoma to assist tribal schools in partnering with states and local school districts to develop culturally sensitive teaching strategies, curriculum materials and data-sharing that can improve attendance, raise graduation rates and reduce dropouts among Native youth. The grant provides funding from 2015 to 2019.
Based in Pablo, Salish Kootenai College has an enrollment of roughly 950 students.