There are 37 tribal colleges throughout the US serving 12,000 students/per year. Tribal colleges and universities are federally supported institutions created to expand higher education access for Native communities while advancing tribal self-determination, language, culture, and workforce development. Their growth has been shaped by key federal laws, including the Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Assistance Act of 1978, the Higher Education Act, and the 1994 land-grant legislation, which together provide operating support, institutional grants, and access to agricultural research and extension resources.
The map features the most up to date list of Tribal Colleges and Universities as of Summer 2026. We overlaid the geolocated digitized list on reservations, NCAI regions and States so that TCUs can be filtered down for a variety of uses.
This data is important because as of today, TCUs lack the visibility they deserve for all the work they do for tribal students. As liminal spaces between tribal and western science worldviews, they are also the heart of groundbreaking work and research on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, hybrid knowledge production and pushing the boundaries of science to new heights and levels of integration. So making space for TCUs in the general education landscape is important for all, not just tribal students.
Data for this dashboard can be downloaded from the dashboard itself on the bottom right corner. For more granular data, please contact us directly.