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Historical timeline

The Center for Indian Education’s (CIE) mission is to serve as a research and resource center in the field of American Indian and Alaska Native, and Indigenous education and related fields at local, state, national, and international levels. The CIE also provides research-related services to Indigenous nations and to the ASU community of students, staff, and faculty. Below is a historical timeline that highlights key milestones and accomplishments as they relate to the CIE mission.


1950s

1957-1958 

Irving W. Stout, Dean of the Graduate College, and G.D. McGrath, Dean of the College of Education, advocated that ASU was the perfect place to establish an Indian Education Center. 

1959                 

The Indian Education Center (IEC) is created, making it the only one of its kind nationally. The IEC changed its name to the Center for Indian Education. 


1960s

1960                 

The Center for Indian Education (CIE) began research on Indian student experiences in urban public schools and on reservations.

1960                 

The first funded research was a two-year research project titled “Higher Education of Southwestern Indians with Reference to Success and Failure” (USOE Project 938).

1960                 

The first annual Indian Education Conference is held, providing a forum for tribal leaders and educators to discuss Indian education concerns.

1960                 

CIE staff engaged students on campus. Drs. Stout and Roessel mentored ASU’s Indian student organization Dawa Chindi. “Dawa,” a Hopi term for “sun”, and “Chindi,” a Navajo work for “devil”, the largest college Indian club in the country at the time.

1961                 

Robert A. Roessel, Jr., Bruce Meador and George A. Gill established and published the first issue of the Journal of American Indian Education (JAIE). 

1961                 

CIE was placed in the Special Education Department when the degree of Master of Arts in education was established.

1966                 

CIE assisted in establishing Rough Rock Demonstration School on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona.

1967-1971       

CIE sponsored an All-Indian Upward Bound Project.


1970s

1970-1977       

CIE assisted with numerous Indian education projects: special instructional programs, research workshops, education institutes, demonstration schools, orientation programs, and conducting tours of nearby urban and reservation schools.

1977-1980       

The Native American Leadership Program sponsored by CIE supported 60 American Indian graduate students pursuing advanced education professional degrees.

1979                  

CIE was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) to operate a Bilingual Education Service Center (BESC). The Center provided technical assistance, resources and training in bilingual/multicultural education to local school districts, colleges and universities, state departments of education and Indian tribes throughout Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and southern California.


1980s

1982                   

OBLEMA awarded CIE a contract for the National Indian Bilingual Center (NIBC) to provide services to all Indian educational organizations throughout the nation. Additional three year contracts were awarded in 1986, 1989 and 1992.

1984                   

The College of Education established a multicultural program area and the courses previously coordinated by CIE were consolidated in the multicultural program along with sources in bilingual education, English as a second language, and multicultural education.

1987                 

CIE received interdisciplinary University Center designation from ABOR in June of 1987.


1990s

1998                   

Two areas of President Clinton’s Executive Order on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (EO 13096) placed CIE squarely in the center of a renewed national agenda in Indian Education: research and professional development.

1998-2007       

CIE awarded four major grants to train Native teachers, which resulted in over 60 new Native teachers in high Indian enrollment schools in Arizona.


2000s

2002-2006       

Native Educators Research Project funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI - now called Institute for Educational Science) and the U.S. Office of Indian Education. Outcome CIE published book (2006) The Power of Native Teachers:  Language and Culture in the Classroom.

2002-2007       

US Department of Education, Office of Indian Education funded Native teacher preparation programs developed by CIE: NATPP I, NATP-Heartlands II, NATP-Heartlands III, and NATP-Heartlands IV. 

2003-2006       

US Title VII funded project Training for All Teachers with on-site ASU courses that fulfilled the requirements of the Arizona Department of Education’s Bilingual and English as a Second Language Endorsement. Collaboration between CIE, Rough Rock Community School and Chinle Unified School District.

2009                   

CIE celebrated its 50th year; a gathering at ASU was held on May 6, 2011 to re-launch the Center into its next 50 years.

2009                   

The Center was part of the reorganization of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.

2009                   

CIE received a $1.2 million USDE grant to prepare Indigenous early childhood educators. “Project Mashchamtam” Native Early Childhood Education Teachers for Arizona’s Indian Children.


2010s

2010                   

CIE relocated to the School of Social Transformation in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and moved its physical location from the Farmer Education Building to the Payne Education Building.

2011                   

The Center held a rededication event and blessing ceremony as it celebrated its 52-year history and committed to a renewed vision for the future. 

2011-2019         

CIE received just over $8 million in funding that supported eight research projects that supported a new generation of Indigenous scholars, teachers, leaders, and cultivated research grounded in Indigenous knowledge. 

2016                   

Dr. Bryan Brayboy and postdoctoral scholar Amanda Tachine pen the idea of a student publication resource titled Turning Points Magazine and begin research.

2017                   

The first issue of Turning Points Magazine is printed and disseminated to ASU’s self-identified American Indian/Alaskan Native students, Arizona’s tribal leadership and educational leaders. Turning Points Magazine is the first-ever college publication entirely made by, for Native college students.

2018                   

Postdoctoral research fellow Jeremiah Chin and CIE research associate Hannah Duncan crafted the Critical Legal Preparation Program (CLPP), established through CIE to facilitate student success from undergraduate through law school and into their legal careers. 

2019                   

CIE launched the online Master of Arts in Indigenous Education program, which offers an innovative degree that engages individuals who are either interested in or currently working with and in Indigenous communities or schools serving Indigenous children.  

2019                   

Drs. Jessica Solyom, Jeremiah Chin, Bryan Brayboy and CIE research assistant Nicholas Bustamante developed the structure of the free online Starbucks curriculum titled “To Be Welcoming” that is supported by CIE and the ASU President’s Office.

2019-2022         

The pilot program Native Narratives and Graduate School Achievement Track: Preparing Indigenous Students for a Career in the Humanities and Academia, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, will provide Indigenous undergraduate students with valuable opportunities for academic, personal and professional development.