At the heart of the lawsuit is the failure of the federal government to consult tribes before deciding to cut Bureau of Indian Education employees, which greatly impacted the tribes left out of the conversation.
Pueblo of Isleta, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes — located in New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma, respectively — are the tribal nations who initiated the lawsuit, and they argue the lack of consultation violated multiple “statutory obligations and the rights of Tribal Nations and students.”
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are the only tribal nation involved in the legal battle in Oklahoma.
Lieutenant Governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Hershel Gorham said they have joined this fight because they have tribal citizens at Haskell University in Kansas and Riverside Indian School in Anadarko.
“A lot of their classes were disturbed because a lot of them had professors [at Haskell] that were terminated,” Gorham said in a phone interview. “And then, because their professors were terminated, their classes were canceled. For some of them, it's putting them in a bind in a position some of them are not able to get their financial aid as a result.”
At Haskell University, about three dozen employees were laid off in the Department of Government Efficiency’s firing spree. Yet, following notable national coverage of the layoffs and devastating impacts students faced, about a third of the members who lost their jobs have been asked to return to work.
The American Indian Higher Education Consortium, an organization that supports tribal colleges and universities, including Haskell, believes more action needs to be taken.
“The American Indian Higher Education Consortium is thrilled to hear that 25 positions recently terminated at Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute have been reinstated,” the AIHEC said in a statement. “However, there are nearly 30 positions who serve critical needs at these institutions that still need to be addressed. We urge the Bureau of Indian Education to continue to address the abrupt cuts to funding and support.”
Some tribal leaders worried about financial cuts to Anadarko’s Riverside Indian School, which is the only bureau-operated school in the state.
Gorham said amid the Trump Administration layoffs and budget cuts, tribal nations need to unify.
“I hope that the rest of the tribes realize this is something that we're all in together, that is not something that one tribe can fight alone, or in this case— three tribes can fight alone,” Gorham said. “Everybody needs to come together, literally come together, and fight for the overall rights that the federal government owes to the Indian tribes collectively, whether or not it impacts them directly or not.”
