Tribes and Native American students sue over BIE firings
Three tribal nations and five Native American students have filed a lawsuit against federal officials over job cuts at Bureau of Indian Education schools, arguing that the Trump administration failed to meet its obligations to tribes when it laid off staff. The case was brought by the Native American Rights Fund on behalf of the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, along with five students.
The AP report says the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington against the heads of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education Programs. It claims that layoffs and forced resignations at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque and Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas left students facing unsafe conditions, disrupted services and delayed financial aid.
According to the filing, nearly one-quarter of the staff at SIPI were fired or forced to resign in February, including nine instructors. Students reported unresolved power outages, and one student said she had to leave her dorm for 13 hours without electricity in order to finish schoolwork elsewhere. At Haskell, the suit said more than one-quarter of staff were lost, including academic staff, coaches, tutors, residential advisers, custodians and food service workers, as well as the university’s only bus driver.
The allegations also extend to basic campus life. The lawsuit says the student centre was shuttered, financial aid was delayed or not delivered in some cases, meal portions were reduced and bathrooms lacked toilet paper. The legal filing argues that some classes were being covered by deans rather than the professors who had been removed, raising concerns about continuity and expertise.
The government’s wider trust responsibilities are central to the dispute. The Bureau of Indian Education serves Indian and Alaska Native students across the country, and the AP piece notes that the federal government has legal and moral obligations to protect tribal interests. One tribal leader quoted in the report said there had been no meaningful consultation before the cuts.
The Interior Department declined comment, while the Bureau of Indian Affairs said it does not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit therefore places the issue squarely before the courts: whether the layoffs were not only disruptive but also unlawful in light of the federal government’s duties to tribes. For the students and tribes behind the case, the question is whether education, safety and basic services were sacrificed without proper consultation or protection.
