Cankdeska Cikana Community College is a tribal college in Fort Totten, North Dakota, on the Spirit Lake Reservation. The college is named after Paul "Little Hoop" Yankton, a Dakota man who fought and died in World War II; his Dakota name was Cankdeska Cikana. Although the college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, it was placed on probation in late 2015 "because of concerns related to program review, general education, assessment of student learning, persistence and completion, and planning."[1][2]
CCCC's origins can be traced back to a Lake Region State College program offering a class in Fort Totten in 1965. The program slowly expanded under tribal governance, and the tribe established Cankdeska Cikana Community College in the 1970s. CCCC was established to provide higher education opportunities for the people of the Spirit Lake Reservation, including classes to preserve Dakota culture and language.
CCCC was chartered by the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in 1974. Its first graduating class consisted of 5 students in 1977. CCCC's graduating class of 2009 was 42 students.
