Cankdeska Cikana Community College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

land-grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior s ...

Fort Totten, North Dakota Fort Totten is a census-designated place (CDP) in Benson County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2010 census. Fort Totten is located within the Spirit Lake Reservation and is the site of tribal headquarters. The reser ...

, on the

Spirit Lake Reservation The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: ''Mniwakaƞ Oyate'', also spelt as ''Mni Wakan Oyate'', formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux Tribe) is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central Nort ...

. The college is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...

. The college is named after Paul "Little Hoop" Yankton, a Dakota man who fought and died in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

; his Dakota name was ''Cankdeska Cikana.''

History

CCCC's origins can be traced back to a

Lake Region State College Lake Region State College (LRSC) is a public junior college in Devils Lake, North Dakota. It was founded in 1941 as an extension of the public school system and first known as Devils Lake Junior College and Business School. Several name changes ...

program offering a class in Fort Totten in 1965. The program slowly expanded under tribal governance, and the tribe established Cankdeska Cikana Community College in the 1970s. CCCC was established to provide higher education opportunities for the people of the Spirit Lake Reservation, including classes to preserve Dakota culture and language. CCCC was chartered by the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in 1974. Its first graduating class consisted of 5 students in 1977. CCCC's graduating class of 2009 was 42 students. In 1994, the college was designated a

land-grant college A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. Signed by Abraha ...

alongside 31 other tribal colleges. As of 2011, it is one of seven tribal colleges in the U.S. to offer a degree related to tribal administration.

Athletics

The school plays basketball in the

Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is an independent college athletic conference. The NIAC is made up of ten schools in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Manitoba. The NIAC sponsors men’s and women’s basketball for member ...

References

External links

Official website
Community colleges in North Dakota American Indian Higher Education Consortium Educational institutions established in 1965 Education in Benson County, North Dakota 1965 establishments in North Dakota {{NorthDakota-university-stub