An unlikely promoter of tribal development, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has set the bar for collaboration and capacity building. At first glance, the NSF was an unlikely and even unpromising administrator for a program promoting tribal development. Unlike the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Department of Education, the NSF did not have a historic mission to serve tribes, nor did it have extensive experience with Indian education. It is best known for funding research grants managed by large universities. There was no reason to assume that this program would become a priority for the NSF. But within the NSF, there were people who were keenly interested in Indian issues. While their experience with Native education was limited, they believed in their agency's broader mandate to increase minority participation in STEM fields. From this uncertain beginning, the NSF developed what many tribal college leaders agree is one of the most effective federal programs to strengthen Indian higher education and, more broadly, the tribal nations they serve. Officially called the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program, the decade-old initiative is more widely known as TCUP (pronounced "tea cup"). Narrowly defined, it has a mandate to support "education, research, and outreach" within tribal colleges (as well as a smaller number of Alaska Native- and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions). More than a decade later, most tribal colleges have received TCUP funding and many new programs are in place that are having a measurable impact on the quality of education for reservation students.