This symposium will present three projects and three explorations into creating learning environments for Native communities. The projects range from a high school that· drew Native students from many tribal nations across the country, to a tribal (2-year) college that serves primarily one Native nation but is open to students from tribes from around the Pacific Northwest, to one of the oldest tribal universities ( 4-year) in the country which serves students from multiple Native nations. All three of these institutions have dealt in different ways with the idea of helping their students "walk in two worlds" or function in two possibly competing epistemologies. All three schools also have to contend at some level with the negative legacy of the Indian boarding schools of the past century that have tainted attitudes towards 'western' education. Also all of the examples are institutions that wish to include and acknowledge, if not celebrate, traditional ways of knowing and learning.