New tribal colleges offer ‘sense of belonging’ for Native students but hit roadblocks
Tribal colleges provide culturally relevant education for Native students. California faces an uphill battle for lack of funding and a lengthy accreditation process.
Victoria Chubb was supposed to study photography at a college in New Mexico after graduating from high school in Riverside County, but was afraid of being far away from home.
“I really did just chicken out to leave my reservation and to leave California,” said Chubb, a member of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.
She tried to go back to art school in San Bernadino a few years later, but dropped out to care for her mother, who was ill.
Eighteen years later, Chubb, now 36, is attending a tribal college, the California Indian Nations College, or CINC, in Palm Desert — one of three recently founded in California. She’s thriving there as a liberal arts student and plans to finish an associate’s degree before transferring