Aaniiih Nakoda College recently announced that an episode of The College Tour, filmed on campus, will premiere in May 2025. According to the press release, ANC will be the first Tribal College featured in the series.
The landmark episode will highlight the unique campus experiences that make ANC a distinctive choice for students.
From hands-on internships at the Buffalo Center to after-hours beading classes, the college fosters a culturally rich environment.
The College Tour is a series that showcases the diverse stories of colleges and universities.
Its mission is to introduce prospective students to various campuses, highlighting each institution’s unique opportunities and experiences.
The crew interviewed ten ANC students and alumni from different educational programs to create a well-rounded portrayal.
Their insights and stories will help potential students understand the many academic pathways and personal growth opportunities available at ANC.
ANC is confident that this episode will showcase the college’s academic excellence, close-knit community, and the traditions that enhance the student experience.
In 2020, ANC announced the launch of a four-year bachelor’s degree program in Aaniih Nakoda Ecology.
The development of the curriculum began in 2017, initiated by the college’s faculty and administrators, and was supported by a grant from the American Indian College Fund.
The degree program includes coursework, field-based instruction, internship opportunities, and undergraduate research. It also encourages students to explore the connections between the Aaniinen, Nakoda, and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.
In a press release, the college revealed that it had received a grant of $3.5 million from the National Science Foundation to establish a Buffalo Research and Education Center over five years.
This center is focused on ecological research concerning the Fort Belknap bison herd and aims to empower faculty and students to become better stewards of the environment, animal relatives, and land.
The center will collaborate with the Fort Belknap Indian Community Buffalo Program, the Fish and Wildlife Department, the World Wildlife Fund, Little Dog Wildlife, and visiting faculty fellows from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
Students will have access to several undergraduate research opportunities, including a one-year fellowship to work with the Smithsonian Institute.
They will also conduct outreach programs in local schools to engage youth in learning about the reservation’s plants, animals, and ecosystems, and establish a tribal buffalo community of practice.
Research projects will include monitoring bison herds to study how resource selection and social interactions influence herd movement.
Additionally, the center will conduct a buffalo-rangeland study correlating herd movement data with vegetative surveys, estimate survival rates and home ranges for reintroduced swift foxes, and develop survey protocols.
It will also conduct population surveys of Fort Belknap’s hoofed mammal species and examine the keystone effects and associations between prairie dogs and grassland birds.
Furthermore, the center will provide community educational opportunities by developing curricula for bison, grassland, and wildlife ecology courses, creating specialized options within the college’s ecology degree program.
In 2022, Daniel Kinsey, a faculty member at Aaniiih Nakoda College and co-author of “The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains,” published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, emphasized the importance of buffalo to their community.
Kinsey stated that they are fortunate to have such a successful program, which is the result of the hard work of many individuals. He also aims to connect younger generations to the buffalo and the ecosystem while incorporating traditional knowledge into current research.
The college has recently established a new bison Research and Education Center to support this mission.
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