American Indian Student Services

About Us

American Indian Student Services (AISS) welcomes students of all American Indian and Alaska Native heritages! AISS serves both students who are tribally enrolled and those who identify but are not enrolled in their tribes. AISS provides culturally responsive educational support:

Resource Referral
Scholarship Information
Advocacy
Cultural Events & Student Clubs

CU Denver American Indian and Alaska Native students represent more than 100 different tribes. The Denver Indian Community is strong! Many families in Denver live far from tribal homelands, yet retain tribal identities and cultures. Twenty percent speak Native languages. The Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes, located in the Four Corners area are the two federally-recognized tribes in Colorado.

Contact Us

Aldora "Dodie" White Eagle

Program Director, American Indian Student Services and Special Assistant for Indigenous Affairs
Pronouns: she/her/hers
aldora.whiteeagle@ucdenver.edu

Dr. White Eagle is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe who was raised on the Wind River Indian Reservation. As a first-generation college graduate, Dr. White Eagle's work and research is centered around Indigenous youth, furthering their educational opportunities, and retention efforts in higher education. Her work currently is aimed at recognizing and honoring each of our Indigenous peoples' historic struggles, culturally sustaining, and educational experiences.

Resources

The Environmental Stewardship of Indigenous Lands (ESIL) certificate is an exciting new educational opportunity at the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver), where the term Indigenous includes Native American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Hawaiian Native. This first-of-its-kind program provides training, internships, and job placement opportunities for students interested in environmental issues involving tribal and non-tribal entities.

The American Indian Student Services Summer Indigenous STEaM camp is grounded in Indigenous knowledge when looking at Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math within the western model. Our sessions are taught by Native college students with the intention of providing mentorship, role modeling and to give camp participants a college campus experience. The camp provides an opportunity for Native middle and high school students to be on the CU Denver campus and to build relationships and community with CU Denver Native students while learning about the brilliance and history of Indigenous ecological, scientific, technological, engineering, art, and mathematical knowledge while integrating this understanding into the western STEM model.

The Tri-institutional Indigenous Student Retreat sponsored by American Indian Student Services aims to bring Indigenous, American Indian/Alaska Native students from all three institutions at Auraria together for a day of building community. This event will begin with a traditional opening and invocation by a respected spiritual leader. Break-out sessions led by two respected elders will present on traditional Indigenous knowledge, identity, and higher education. A world-renowned spoken word artist and activist, Ms. Lyla June (Din’e) will perform and speak to participants. Lunch will be provided by Tocabe the local and only Native American restaurant in Colorado. Students will spend the afternoon networking and team building. The closing will include a traditional blessing ceremony for our students led by our spiritual leader.

Events

Loading items....

Exception occured while executing the controller. Check error logs for details.

Center for Identity & Inclusion

CU Denver

Student Commons Building

1201 Larimer Street

Campus Box 132

Denver, CO 80204

cii@ucdenver.edu

303-315-1880

YouTube

Tools

Resources

Schools & Colleges

Campus Affiliates

Center for Identity & Inclusion | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion