The Durango Herald is running a four-part series on the Indian tuition waiver at Fort Lewis College in Colorado.

Any American Indian or Alaska Native student can attend the college free of charge. The state agreed to the waiver in 1911 after accepting a 6,279-site that was once used as an Indian boarding school.

Fort Lewis is a big draw in Indian Country as a result. Native Americans represent about 20 percent of the student body and the school awards more degrees to Native students than any other baccalaureate institution in the U.S.

“The tuition waiver, financially, it helped me accomplish my college career,” Davonne Teri John, a member of the Navajo Nation who just graduated, told the Herald. “I’m really thankful for it.”

There have been at least two efforts to end the waiver, or at least address the cost to the state. Tuition for Native students runs about $13 million a year, the Herald reported.

Get the Story:
A historic promise (The Durango Herald 6/3)
Money made, money lost? The Durango Herald 6/4)