Fort Lewis College

Journey Brings Native American Center Director’s Passion Back Home

By Ken Wright, 5-16-06

Yvonne Bilinski likes to make things happen. That’s why she’s so excited to be the new director of Fort Lewis College’s Native American Center.

“I sense a heightened sense of ‘can do-ism’ here,” Bilinski says, making no attempt to hide her enthusiasm. “The opportunity to come to Fort Lewis College and the Native American Center is absolutely so exciting. The hyperbole is intended as I am very, very happy about the appointment.”

Bilinski was hired in May to fill the position at the NAC, which had been empty since October.

The Native American Center is an on-campus facility that helps the college’s American Indian students adapt and succeed in their college experience by providing counseling, academic advising, tutoring, sponsoring events, and offering students a central meeting place and study area.

Fort Lewis College began as an army outpost in the 1880s. In 1911, the governor of Colorado converted the fort into a school for Indian students, which they could attend for free. The school later became a junior college, then, in 1956, a four-year college – at which time the campus moved from the site of the old fort, near Hesperus, Colo., to its present location on a mesa overlooking downtown Durango.

Through it all, tuition has been waived for Native students. Today, some 18 percent of Fort Lewis College’s nearly 4,500 students are Native American, representing tribes from around the country.

For Bilinski, the position with Fort Lewis is a coming home. As a member of the Navajo Tribe raised in the Farmington area, Bilinski began her academic career at the New Mexico State University, where in 1977 she earned a Masters degree in History.

“I grew up in the midst of history,” she says, citing in particular the influence of nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument and Chaco Culture National Historical Park, “which helped direct my interests into the field of history.”

After that, though, it was time to explore outside the place she had always known.

Following her graduation from NMSU, Bilinski enrolled in the graduate program in U.S. History at UCLA. This experience, combined with the opportunity to work with leaders in the field, broadened her world and, she says, and “ignited the fires of my passion.”

It’s also where she met her husband, who in turn further expanded her world and interests when they moved to New York in 1980 so he could work on his MBA.

In New York, Bilinski worked for more than 20 years in Office of Minority Student Affairs at the University of Rochester. She also continued her learning in the Graduate School of Education there.

And now, Bilinski is bringing her long explorations and education full circle, back where it all began in her Four Corners home. This wide-ranging path nonetheless represents a common theme in her, says Bilinski. “I think the best way to look at me is as a life-long learner,” she says.

And that passion is what she hopes to bring to the Native American Center and the other Native students at Fort Lewis.

“The existence of the Center is crucial to the future of incoming and current students,” Bilinski says. “I look forward to working with a dedicated team of professionals who believe in the students, in the college, in what the NAC can evolve into.”

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