NAES College: Campus Locations

NAES College --Native American Educational Services

Minneapolis
Campus

NAES College Twin Cities
2300 Cedar Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612)724-3627 Fax (612) 724-3560

The Minneapolis Campus is located in South Minneapolis and serves American Indian students from the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. While the largest Indian population is located in the Phillips neighborhood of south Minneapolis, recent population data shows that Indian families are moving into other parts of the city as well as many inner ring suburbs. It is estimated that the Twin Cities area is home to some 24,000 American Indians.

The Twin Cities is a unique urban center for American Indians that represents a variety of Indian cultures. The majority of the Twin Cities American Indian population, however, has ties to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribes (MCT) and the Mdewakanton Sioux tribes. There are seven Chippewa reservations in Minnesota, six are members of the MCT. Only the Red Lake Nation resides on a closed reservation. There are four Mdewakanton Sioux reservations in southern Minnesota.

NAES computer lab

The Twin Cities American Indian community is nationally recognized for political activism and innovative programming. Community leadership has resulted in a wide variety of educational and social service programs including the earliest ventures in Indian-controlled schools, health programs, and social service agencies. Currently, the Indian community supports a wide range of Indian run businesses, social and human service agencies and educational programs, including NAES College.

NAES graduate and faculty,
Cheryl Avina, receives
TC Leadership Award

The NAES - Twin Cities Campus offered its first classes in January 1988 with four full-time students. Since then the campus has graduated 29 students. 25% of the graduates have gone on to graduate school, three having earned their master's degree and the other four working towards that goal.

Input from community leaders and organizations has been critical in defining the Twin Cities NAES College curriculum. Course content, community policy issues and special training programs are all based on community needs as defined by the community itself. For example, a pilot course, Welfare Reform and Devolution, was developed by a Visiting Faculty through our Self-Determination Institute. The course became a model for the creation of other core courses. It included the development of student learning portfolios, literature reviews, oral research and reporting and incorporated numerous learning styles. Course outcomes included the organization of a student-directed community forum on welfare reform and childcare. It was highlighted by the students reporting on their research findings, faculty delivering papers, and a panel of community experts discussing the welfare reform topic. (A copy of this paper can be viewed on the NAES College web site at http://www.naes.edu).

This example of student and faculty instruction and learning is common at NAES and will continue as we work to understand, define and influence public policy that impacts American Indian communitie