TIGUA - Road To Recognition: The Travails Of A Tribe

Education programs

The tribe established an Education Department in 1993. Money the tribe receives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and grants help pay for after-school tutoring, referral services and incentive programs.

The tribe receives about $250,000 from the federal government for education programs.

It used casino revenue to help build the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Empowerment Center, which houses the tribe's Education Department, a library and computer lab. It also houses a workforce development center that provides career development information, training and job search services for tribal and non-tribal residents.

All of the educational and work-force development services fall under the tribe's Empowerment Program, which is funded by the Department of Labor, Bureau of Indian Affairs and other grants.

The department also administers the tribe's scholarship program. The tribe awarded $177,836 in scholarships in 2007.

"We try to eliminate excuses for our youth so they could continue their education," said Carlos Hisa, the tribe's lieutenant governor. "We need to get them educated because they will represent the pueblo in the future."

Education is a priority for the tribe, but funding limits what it can do to provide financial aid to its members, said Luis Nunez, director of the Tribal Empowerment Program.

"I am always out looking for different grants or different resources to ensure that our higher education students' needs are met," he said. "We utilize our resources as best as possible. Once they apply for every resource available in the community, then we go ahead and go through the higher education program here. Some of it is through Bureau of Indian Affairs funding, but it is not much and it is limited to a certain degree to who is going to benefit from it."