The Tribal College Journal of Indian American Higher Education is moving to Durango after 25 years in Mancos.
Publisher Rachael Marchbanks, left the Tribal College Journal in January. She was the only employee based in Mancos, so the quarterly magazine decided to move its office building closer to the office manager, ad coordinator and subscription manager, Marvene Tom (Diné), who lives outside Durango.
The editor, Bradley Shreve, is based in Albuquerque.
The Tribal College Journal office first moved from Maryland to Mancos in 1997, but it has occupied the house at 130 East Montezuma St. for about 20 years.
The new office address in Durango is 679E. Second Ave., Condominium Suite E-1, Office No. 1.
“We are an American Indian-owned publication, so it is good to be in Indian Country in the traditional homeland of the Navajo,” Shreve said in a phone interview.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the land of the ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde are nearby, Shreve said.
Diné College in Arizona and the Navajo Technical University, the Institute of American Indian Arts and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico are within driving distance of the Tribal College Journal office in Southwest Colorado.
The publication has had interns from Fort Lewis College in the past, but Shreve said he was not sure that would continue when the office moved to Durango.
The Tribal College Journal focuses on American Indian higher education and issues American Indians face.
“Native students have a much higher success rate in tribally controlled institutions” that offer a “culturally grounded curriculum,” Shreve said.
Many Native American students leave tribal communities to go to institutions far from home. But the community and cultural connection is “vital to success,” Shreve said.
The publication is an opportunity for researchers, professors and students from tribally controlled higher education institutions to have their work published and explore why curriculum grounded in culture is beneficial for education.
“Fortunately, (the new office) is just down the road,” Shreve wrote in the news release. “We hope that when this pandemic finally passes, you’ll come visit us.”
ehayes@the-journal.com