About Aaniiih Nakoda College
Aaniiih Nakoda College is a tribal community college, one of 37 across the United States with an "open door" policy. On November 7, 1983, the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council chartered Fort Belknap College and affirmed a new college board of directors to begin the process of establishing a fully accredited college. Fort Belknap College received candidacy status in 1985 and became accredited in 1987, and began processing the first official transcripts the winter of 1988. ANC just completed a full scale campus visit (April 2017) and recently attended (June 2017) the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities summer meeting to expound on the commendations and recommendations made by the visiting evaluation team.
On September 22, 2011, Fort Belknap College officially became Aaniiih Nakoda College. Aaniiih means "White Clay" for the Gros Ventre tribe and for the Assiniboine tribe, Nakoda means "The People". Each tribal college is unique and are located on specific Indian Reservation(s) and represent each tribe or tribes with their own history(ies), culture(s) and language(s).
The averaged ANC graduation rate for the past 10 years is approximately 23%, which was recognized nationally by the College Score Card and the Aspen Institute named ANC one of the Top 150 Community Colleges in the U.S. ANC averages about 200-240 students these past three years. The college has many student success stories, but the most exciting is when students go on to attain a baccalaureate degree, then a master's degree, and sometimes a doctorate, then return back to Fort Belknap to become a college instructor, a college staff member, an adjunct professor or work in the local businesses; giving back to their communities. Student success is measured one student at a time and because the institution is small in population, staff and faculty get to know each student.
ANC is located inside the northern boundary of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and is nestled in the Milk River basin. Just 45 miles south of the Canadian/Montana border, the environment is grasslands and strip farming and has small isolated mountain ranges called "islands". ANC is one of seven tribal colleges in the state of Montana and provides services to the highline communities with quality educational programs, professional development, tribal public library, community-orientated projects, and state-of-the-art information technology.
The American Indian Studies Department Chair and instructor described ANC as a - place where American Indian culture and technology meet... this is true. We welcome everyone to ANC to meet our students and staff, to stopover at the college's KGVA 88.1 FM Public Radio Station or to just explore the ANC campus.