Wind River Tribal College, or WRTC, is a tribally chartered college located in

Fort Washakie, Wyoming Fort Washakie ( arp, Ce'eyeino'oowu') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States, within the Wind River Indian Reservation and along U.S. Route 287. The population was 1,759 at the 2010 census. The headquarters ...

. The campus is on the

Wind River Indian Reservation The Wind River Indian Reservation, in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, is shared by two Native American tribes, the Eastern Shoshone ( shh, Gweechoon Deka, ''meaning: "buffalo eaters"'') and the Northern Arapaho ( arp, ...

in central Wyoming. WRTC serves residents of the

and surrounding communities. WRTC's enrollment consists of mostly Northern Arapaho and

Eastern Shoshone Eastern Shoshone are Shoshone who primarily live in Wyoming and in the northeast corner of the Great Basin where Utah, Idaho and Wyoming meet and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They lived in the Rocky Mountains d ...

students.

History

WRTC was chartered by the Northern Arapaho Business Council in September 1997.

Partnerships

WRTC has articulation agreements with the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

and the

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. WRTC is a member of the

American Indian Higher Education Consortium The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) was established in 1972 to represent the interests of the newly developed tribal colleges, which are controlled and operated by American Indian nations. The four founders were Gerald One F ...

(AIHEC), which is a community of tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations and make a lasting difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives. WRTC was created in response to the higher education needs of American Indians. WRTC generally serves geographically isolated populations that have no other means accessing education beyond the high school level. In 2013, WRTC graduated 10 students with their bachelor of arts degree in elementary education. The cohort was the first graduates of the partnership between Wind River and Oshkosh.

Programs

WRTC offers associate degree programs in: * social work, * business administration, * elementary education, and * criminal justice. In Summer 2015, the college hosted an

Arapaho language The Arapaho (Arapahoe) language () is one of the Plains Algonquian languages, closely related to Gros Ventre and other Arapahoan languages. It is spoken by the Arapaho of Wyoming and Oklahoma. Speakers of Arapaho primarily live on the Wind Ri ...

camp.

References

External links

Wind River Tribal College
{{authority control Community colleges in Wyoming Tribal colleges and universities Land-grant universities and colleges 1997 establishments in Wyoming Educational institutions established in 1997 Public universities and colleges in Wyoming Wind River Indian Reservation