BILLINGS — Native American representation is up nearly 14% from last spring semester of 2022 to 2023 at MSU-Billings, according to figured released Tuesday by the university.
Faculty and students say measures are continuing to pave the way for future successes for the MSUB native population.
Student Bryor Smith is a shining example of the hard work and time it takes to get an education.
"My perfect world is for people that want to get an education, I want them to be able to go. And once they’re there, I want them to be retained and to stay on the path in order to not go down the wrong road," said Smith, a junior at MSUB, on Tuesday.
Smith was at MSUB once before. He left initially because he missed home, as many students do.
"I think a lot of people get homesick because they don’t really have a community when they go to college. It’s kind of a culture shock," added Smith.
His story is similar to now dozens of Native Americans in Montana, who are getting their degree at MSUB. Enrollment is growing across the board, and part of that is tribal representation increasing to an all-time high.
Sunny Day Real Bird is the director of American Indian outreach at MSUB. When she took the position two years ago, she noticed that many tribal members were struggling in areas unrelated to grades.
"The mission at the Native American achievement center is to help recruit and retain native students here at MSUB.... A lot of it has to do with making sure that they’re getting connected to the right resources. And then making sure that students are being accountable and understanding how critical punctuality and attendance is to be successful," said Real Bird on Tuesday.
After the success started, retaining the students and seeing them through to the end became key.
"We saw a 19% retention rate increase for our Native American students. A lot of that is due to the hard work of Sunny Day and her team. To really connect with those students, connect them with resources and really make them feel at home here at MSU-B," said Katharine Moffat, retention director at MSUB, Tuesday.
Feeling at home is something Smith knows all too well. He got his associate degree closer to home at Fort Peck Community College but always knew he wanted to be back.
"Sunny does a great job of having events for all of those to kind of get together and get to know each other from different tribes," Smith said.
And he knows when he’s done, he’ll be able to make a difference back for his tribe.
"I like to see Native people get out and get an education because not a lot of people make it off the rez all the time. But when they do, they usually come back and try to help out with the people," added Smith.
"An unfinished degree is the most expensive and once they’ve completed it a lot of it is helping build native community," Real Bird added.
