A bill in the 113th Congress helps Fort Lewis College in Colorado pay for the tuition of Indian students.

Any American Indian or Alaska Native student can attend the college free of charge. The state agreed to the waiver in 1911 after accepting a 6,279-site that was once used as an Indian boarding school.

The bill would reimburse the college for out-of-state Native students. According to The Durango Herald, that came to $12 million in fiscal year 2012-2013.

The college would still pay for in-state Native students. But that figure is much smaller -- only $678,150 in fiscal year 2012-2013, the paper reported.

In 2012, 943 Native American students, representing 144 tribes, were enrolled at Fort Lewis. “Our country has a sacred obligation to our Native American friends and neighbors," Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) said in a press release.

The bill also benefits the University of Minnesota, Morris, which has a similar program.

The House bill is H.R.1658. The Senate bill is S.765.

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Native tuition funding measure slogs on (The Durango Herald 4/26)