Salish Kootenai College (SKC) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

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

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 undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

in Pablo, Montana. It serves the

Bitterroot Salish The Bitterroot Salish (or Flathead, Salish, Séliš) are a Salish-speaking group of Native Americans, and one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to t ...

, Kootenai, and

Pend d'Oreilles The Pend d'Oreille or Pend d'Oreilles ( ), also known as the Kalispel (), are Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. Today many of them live in Montana and eastern Washington (state), Washington of the United States. The Kalispel peoples r ...

tribes. SKC's main campus is on the

Flathead Reservation The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish (tribe), Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai (tribe), Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles (tribe), Pend d'Oreilles tribes – also known as the ...

. There are three satellite locations in eastern Washington state, in Colville, Spokane, and Wellpinit. Approximately 1,207 students attend SKC. Although enrollment is not limited to Native American students, SKC's primary function is to serve the needs of Native American people.

History

Prior to 1978, SKC was a branch campus of

Flathead Valley Community College Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) is a Public college, public community college in Kalispell, Montana. History The college was founded in 1967. It is one of three two-year institutions in the state that are outside the control of the Un ...

(FVCC). SKC is a tribal college, chartered in 1977 under the sovereign governmental authority of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In 1981, the college formally disassociated from FVCC and became completely self-governing. The college was designated a land-grant college in 1994 alongside 31 other tribal colleges. In 2015, a satellite designed by SKC students and faculty was successfully deployed into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

under NASA's

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

Launch Initiative, making it the first operational CubeSat designed by a tribal college. BisonSat's primary mission objective is to transmit image data of Earth with a targeted

ground sample distance In remote sensing, ground sample distance (GSD) in a digital photo of the ground from air or space is the distance between pixel centers measured on the ground. For example, in an image with a one-meter GSD, adjacent pixels image locations are 1 me ...

of 100 meters. Some former employees sued the college in 2017 under the Federal

False Claims Act False or falsehood may refer to: * False (logic), the negation of truth in classical logic * Lie or falsehood, a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement * False statement, aka a falsehood, falsity, misstatement or untruth, is a st ...

, saying that the administration had falsified student records in order to continue receiving public grant funding from the United States Department of Human Services and the United States Department of Indian Health Services. This suit was dismissed with prejudice in May 2018 by United States District Court, D. Montana, Missoula Division in a determination that the lawsuit violated tribal sovereignty of the Confederation Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Academics

SKC offers 17

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

programs, 24

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

programs, and 6 certificate programs. Although most of the degree programs are career-oriented, students can elect to take courses of study in fields such as the

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

and Native American Studies.American Indian Higher Education Consortium

Partnerships

Salish Kootenai College - Michel Building 20130723

SKC is a member of the

American Indian Higher Education Consortium These organizations for post-secondary education have a common purpose and mission for advocacy in numerous areas of both institutional management and the general public interest. The organizations have specific purpose for issues from faculty uni ...

, a community of tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations and make a lasting difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives. SKC was created to serve the needs of American Indians for higher education. SKC generally serves geographically isolated populations that have no other means to gain higher education beyond the high school level.

Athletics

The sports teams are nicknamed the "Bison" and "Lady Bison". Although they are not within any athletic association. SKCs men's basketball program has won 3 consecutive

Basketball Championships (05, 06, 07) and the women have won 2 (03, 07). The Bison, and Lady Bison also are the current AIHEC champions, both winning the 2014 tournament.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available to Native American students through the

American Indian College Fund The American Indian College Fund is a nonprofit organization that helps Native American students, providing them with support through scholarships and funding toward higher education. The fund provides an average of 6,000 annual scholarships ...

(AICF).

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 47, 35, 47, N, 114, 06, 39, W, format=dms, display=title, type:edu_region:US-MT 1981 establishments in Montana Educational institutions established in 1981 Tribal Colleges in Montana Education in Lake County, Montana American Indian Higher Education Consortium Universities and colleges accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities Ktunaxa