National tribal education advocate and longtime superintendent of the Santa Fe Indian School, Joseph Abeyta, has died at 83 after suffering a stroke. He was among the first tribal leaders to assume control of an American Indian boarding school from the federal government, securing the contract for the Albuquerque Indian School from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1977. Abeyata served as superintendent for 32 years, the longest tenure in the school’s history. He sought to transform the school into a place defined by Native American values, not being used as tools for forced assimilation. He also helped advance the Tribally Controlled Schools Act, which allows Native American tribes to take control of Bureau of International Education schools through grants or contracts, and placed the school and its land in a trust for the 19 Pueblo governors of New Mexico.