Historic partnership aims to promote academic success for tribal students

A historic partnership has been made between the Shoshone Bannock Tribes and Idaho State University.

ISU President Kevin Satterlee met with tribal leaders to sign a memorandum of agreement Tuesday.

Shoshawna Covington, an ISU Tribal Board Member, hopes this new partnership will help tribal students thrive at ISU.

“This is a monumental day today, and it gives me hope,” Covington said. “This is just a huge victory for the Shoshone Bannock people and I’m very excited to be a part of it.”

The agreement has various components.

First, the university plans to develop a high school student outreach program, to all tribal students interested in attending ISU.

Second, the university will provide on-campus educational resources for tribal students. Lastly, the university plans to work directly with the tribal government to help set educational goals for the Native American students.

“I think the key to it is making sure we’re setting up a relationship where the tribe understands that as far as the university concerned, the tribal members are part of our constituents,” Satterlee said.

Once every couple of weeks, a board will meet to discuss how to implement some of these components.

“The main point of the agreement is that the working group will be there made up of staff from the university and staff from the tribes to talk about what those needs are and how to meet them,” Satterlee said.

“It would include scholarships, the availability of mentorships, it would be having a tribal face on campus to say how can I help you.”

Specifically, someone to give a tribal perspective. A perspective that also goes along with cultural understanding to the average ISU student.

“And understanding the Shoshone and Bannock people are a big part of our history and honoring the fact that our university sits on land that is apart of their original and tribal land is part of that,” Satterlee said. “If you understand the history, it helps us build that cultural understanding,which is better for everybody.”