Program History

In 2015, Montana State University Northern received a $1.9 million grant from the Native American Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) program of the U.S. Department of Education. With this award, MSUN created the Little River Institute: a center designed to improve the retention and completion rates of American Indian students. 

The Littile River Institute provides professional tutoring, peer mentorship, and cultural engagement. Additionally, the Institute offers professional development opportunities to faculty and staff.

Why Are We Called "The Little River Institute?"

The Little River Institute (LRI) bears the Blackfeet name for the 700 miles of meandering waterway coursing through northern Montana’s Indian Country. Like the Little River, our university’s 37,000-square-mile service area reaches from the Blackfeet Reservation in the northwest, passes along the Rocky Boy’s and Fort Belknap Reservations in the center and continues to the Fort Peck Reservation in the east.