University of Montana "was the first to establish dual admission agreements with all of the tribal colleges and as such it was the first institution in the nation to actively facilitate student transfer from the tribal colleges." In addition, the Montana legislature passed the Indian Education for All Act, creating the only state mandate for public schools to "teach American Indian history, culture, and heritage to preschool through higher education students." Research Faculty development In 2017 Ahmed Al-Asfour and Suzanne Young conducted a survey study of the professional development needs of faculty at TCUs. The areas of greatest concern were workload and low salary. Low teacher salaries may be attributed to the unique situation TCUs have related to funding. Most tribal colleges are located on reservations and therefore are not supported by local taxes, nor do they pay them. They receive financial support only from the federal government, chiefly through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and remain chronically underfunded. Al-Asfour and Young say that this underfunding and subsequent low faculty salaries may be a cause of low retention of faculty. As a result, mostly inexperienced faculty accept positions at TCUs. Additionally, Al-Asfour and Young found that non-Native American faculty reported significantly greater challenges in learning Native American culture compared to Native American faculty. They say that faculty development should focus on training the non-native staff in regard to Native American culture, to better serve their population of students. TCUs are unique institutions and therefore require special attention to understand the needs of their faculty and to allocate resources as needed. Role of mentorship Research done by Carol Ward, Kacey Widdison Jones, Ryan Coles, Loren Rich, Stan Knapp and Robert Madsen at Chief Dull Knife College (CDKC) found that AI/AN students had a special need for direct culturally sensitive mentoring and social support. The case study of CDKC explored the outcome which students attributed to their experiences working on a research project under a mentor, and the effects this participation had on student attitudes. They studied students who were involved in a variety of research collaborations with the University of Montana and Montana State University under mentorship from the research director. From this one-on-one instruction and mentorship, the students’ perceptions of themselves, their abilities, and their futures increased significantly. After being mentored, they believed they could incorporate science into their educational and career future. They completed upper-level science research methods courses