LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) – Highlands University and New Mexico’s tribal leaders have signed an agreement to give Native American students access to more scholarship.

The memorandum of understanding signed last week sets aside 69 full-tuition scholarships per year through 2020.

Highlands’ financial aid director Eileen Sedillo said the university has awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships to New Mexico’s Native American students since 2006.

The first memorandum of understanding between Highlands and the New Mexico tribes was signed in 1997. Scholarships were added to later agreements.