Latest news with #HaskellIndianNationsUniversity
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senior Feared He Wouldn't Graduate After Massive Cuts to His School. So, He Protested Until He Lost His Voice (Exclusive)
Tyler Moore was one of many seniors who wondered if they'd be able to graduate when a quarter of the staff at Haskell Indian Nations University was laid off because of federal cuts earlier this year The student leader, who was able to graduate earlier this month, helped organize protests in Lawrence, Kan. and the state capital after the layoffs Moore, who plans on becoming a professor of Native history, says the university recently celebrated its 140th anniversary — and "will absolutely be here for another 140 years"In mid-February, senior Tyler Moore visited his photography professor, Robert Hicks Jr., in his office. The space, located at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., was usually covered with papers and cameras. But that day, Hicks was packing his belongings into boxes. Moore had heard a rumor that school employees were being laid off as the result of an executive order from the Trump administration. The 22-year-old — who had been elected as the Haskell Brave, a top leadership position in the student body — wanted to offer his support. 'I'm here for you if you need anything,' Moore remembers telling his professor. He left to speak to another student, but when he returned, Hicks was gone. 'His entire studio room is empty,' Moore, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, tells PEOPLE. 'I'm like, this does not feel right. This is just terrible.' In May, Moore graduated with a degree in Indigenous and American Indian Studies, but for days after the mass layoff — part of the Trump administration's plans to cut federal funding and the federal workforce — he worried that his four years of study wouldn't end with a diploma. 'I didn't know if we were going to continue onward,' says Moore, who, at the time, had just hours of credits left before he was set to earn his bachelor's degree. The exit of 30-some employees — which prompted a group of tribal nations and students to file a lawsuit in federal court — also left other seniors reeling. Some students even left the school entirely, according to people familiar with the situation. The president of the university and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment. By early April, the school was allowed to reinstate employees as part of a judge's order in response to federal workforce cuts, though some did not return, according to The Hechinger Report. But the school was in chaos for two weeks after the initial firings as students navigated new instructors, or no instructors at all, and struggled to catch up with their course work. It was a moment that too closely echoed Haskell's past struggles with the U.S. government. Just one of two federally run colleges for Native people, Haskell has some of the worst outcomes in the country. It's the same location where the U.S. installed a boarding school to assimilate Native children more than 140 years ago and where at least 103 people are buried, The New York Times reported. The school has navigated underfunding and broken promises from the U.S. ever since. But it also provides a sense of community for the indigenous students who attend. Angel Ahtone Elizarraras, student government president at the university, tells PEOPLE she chose to attend Haskell because she knew she "wouldn't feel like an outsider" there. She says the university is a space where she can pray and speak in her language without judgment. For Moore, Haskell provides a 'sense of unity.' He says when the school comes under attack, it 'attacks that sense of cultural identity as well.' The senior, who is Cherokee on his mother's side, had learned of his people's resiliency and history of resistance from his grandfather. So, during that time of uncertainty, when students looked to the Haskell Brave and other leaders like Elizarraras for guidance, they responded. A week after the initial cuts happened, Moore helped organize protests at the state capitol, Topeka, and in downtown Lawrence. At the protest in Topeka, Moore arrived with about 25 fellow students. 'We did round dances as well on the state capitol grounds, healing round dances,' he says. At the end of the protests, in which students shouted 'Hands off Haskell!' their voices were gone. 'I am so proud of my Haskell community throughout all this,' says Moore, whose own grandfather got "fired up" and is proud of what the students accomplished. 'They just showed up and showed out every single time.' When he graduated on Friday, May 9, Moore was also saying goodbye to his title of Haskell Brave. He plans on getting his master's degree in indigenous studies at Kansas University, and dreams of becoming a professor and teaching Native history to other Native scholars. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Meanwhile, he's celebrating that his school is continuing on. After recently marking Haskell's 140th anniversary, Moore says he's encouraged by the students willing to speak out and protest. 'We will absolutely be here for another 140 years,' he says. 'We're going to outlast any piece of executive paper that they throw at us." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ICT NEWSCAST: Turmoil at Haskell, Spirit Lake celebrates and Native excellence in film
The ICT Newscast for Friday, March 21, 2025 features updates on the impact of Trump-era layoffs on Haskell Indian Nations University. Plus, the return of treaty land in North Dakota, a new Canadian prime minister making headlines, and Native voices gaining ground in film, food, and education. Check out the ICT Newscast on YouTube for this episode and more. Turmoil at Haskell Indian Nations University: Trump administration layoffs and their impact. Land Return to Spirit Lake Nation: Celebration of treaty land being returned after 120 years. Canadian Political Developments: New Prime Minister amidst tariff war and annexation threats. Oscar Nomination for Native Filmmaker: Julian Brave NoiseCat's "Sugarcane" documentary. Tribal Culture Sharing in Montana: Indigenous students at the University of Montana sharing culture. Food Sovereignty in Alabama: An Alabama tribe's efforts to support food sovereignty. Native Restaurant in Portland, Oregon: A famous native pop-up restaurant opens a brick-and-mortar location. View previous ICT broadcasts here every week for the latest news from around Indian Country. ICT is owned by IndiJ Public Media, a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support ICT for as little as $10. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Haskell: Hope for some, silence for others
Kevin AbourezkICT LAWRENCE, Kansas – As snow fell outside her dorm room, De'Ara Dosela awoke, looked at her phone and learned her world had email from her university's president began: 'I'm writing to inform you of recent staffing changes that will affect our campus.'The White Mountain Apache student would later learn nearly a quarter of Haskell Indian Nations University's faculty and staff had lost their jobs that Friday, February 14, as part of the Trump administration's decision to fire all federal probationary employees in order to cut government layoffs hit Haskell students hard.'I didn't know what to do,' she said. 'I just kind of laid in my room all day. I didn't know how to feel.' It would take several days for her and other students to begin to realize the scope of the layoffs, and even then it was through social media, rather than university leaders, that they began to learn which of their teachers, coaches and favorite dining hall workers had been fired. In the hours after the layoffs, employees announced on Facebook and Instagram that they had lost their jobs. Many lamented no longer being able to work with students. Among them was Julia White Bull, Dosela's boss and 'campus aunt.'As a university academic advisor or 'success coach,' White Bull had helped students enroll in classes, find financial aid, meet graduation requirements and navigate the many challenges of student life.'It just hasn't been the same without her,' Dosela said. Nearly a month after the university's layoffs, students, employees and alumni have worked to repair the layoffs impacted Haskell and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institution in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the only two federally operated tribal colleges and universities in the country out of the 34 active tribal layoff notices went to probationary federal workers who had been hired within the one to two years. They were not covered under the civil service regulations that protected other federal employees. Although, one individual at SIPI who was laid off was one month shy of her three-year anniversary. Bureau of Indian Education employees hired for 'Indian preference' positions, which include many positions at Haskell, are required to serve for two years on probationary Haskell, nearly 40 employees, including seven instructors, multiple coaches, administrative, housing and custodial workers, and others were abruptly laid off. The layoffs left Haskell with 34 classes without teachers and half of its academic advisors jobless, forcing instructors to take on more courses, as well as all academic advising duties, according to a letter sent by Haskell University President Frank Arpan to students and employees. With just a few custodians, students say they have had to empty overflowing trashcans, refill empty toilet paper dispensers and clean bathrooms themselves. The layoffs have also underscored institutional challenges at Haskell, where university administrators have long struggled to relay timely information to students and reached out to Haskell University President Frank Arpan recently for an interview regarding the layoffs and their impact on the university. Arpan declined to comment and directed ICT to a Bureau of Indian Education spokesperson, who offered a terse reply:'The Bureau reaffirms its unwavering commitment to strengthening government-to-government relationships with American Indian and Alaska Native tribes while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people. We do not have a comment on personnel matters; however, the Interior will continue to uphold federal responsibilities to tribal communities.'The Bureau of Indian Education, under the U.S. Department of the Interior, operates Haskell as part of the U.S. government's trust responsibilities — the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold treaties, laws and congressional acts dealing with Haskell, Arpan has communicated with students and employees through sporadic, emailed letters. In the days following the layoffs, he shared many of the tough decisions he was forced to make, but he promised better better days may be week, he said all faculty members who were terminated would be returning to their positions immediately as contracted adjunct instructors. And in a March 12 letter, Arpan said all faculty rehired as contract employees had been fully reinstated and that the university planned to hire more student workers to help with custodial he said, all 'coaches, dining, and housing personnel lost in the probationary terminations' had been rehired, including the university's women's basketball coach, Adam Strom, who had continued coaching despite not getting paid. 'It's really exciting,' Strom told ICT last week a few hours after learning he had been rehired. But not all of the news has been good. Arpan said academic advisors within the university's Student Success Center would not be rehired 'due to personnel adjustments caused by the recent layoffs.' He said the center would remain closed. Haskell Foundation President Bo Schneider said the foundation is working with Arpan's office to identify the university's most urgent needs and has begun raising funds to meet those needs. With a goal of $350,000, the foundation had raised more than $247,000 as of Monday, March – who spoke to ICT prior to Arpan's announcement on March 12 that all faculty, coaches, dining hall and housing staff, had been reinstated – said the foundation planned to use the funds to rehire essential employees, support laid-off employees and meet urgent student the foundation and university administrators have worked to minimize the impact of the cuts, outside forces have stepped forward to try to reverse the efforts have included: A March 7 federal lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund on behalf of three tribes and five Native American students who say the Trump administration failed its trust obligations to tribes by laying off Bureau of Indian Education employees, including those at Haskell and at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, the only other federally run tribal college and university. A March 12 decision by a federal judge in California ordering the Trump administration to rehire thousands of workers let go in the mass layoffs. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the firings didn't follow federal law and aimed his decision at several federal departments, including Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Treasury and the Interior. However, it was unclear this week whether and how the judge's ruling would impact BIE employees. What is clear is the Trump administration's plans to fight the ruling, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt last week called 'absurd and unconstitutional.' Julia White Bull, a success coach who lost her job, said she has received no information from the university regarding potential efforts to rehire her.'I have heard nothing. Silence,' she said. The granddaughter of the late, famed American Indian Movement leader Russell Means said she considers her firing illegal, considering the federal government's trust obligations to provide education to Indigenous people. White Bull, a Standing Rock Sioux Tribe citizen, said she has written to her congressional representatives and state senators seeking support to force the Trump administration to rescind the layoffs. She also has sought the support of tribal leaders to provide funding to offset the university's job and funding losses. And she has marched in protests alongside many of the students whom she spent so many years empowering to speak for themselves.'I did everything right. I got my bachelor's, got my master's, worked my way on up,' she said. 'This is why we need people to fight because this could happen to anyone.'She also took aim at the way the university handled her little time to leave, she cried openly after leaving her office and carrying her belongings through the library, where students had gathered that day to talk and share their grief. Many walked up to White Bull with tears in their eyes as they said goodbye.'I just didn't expect it to be that way, kind of humiliating,' she said. 'Even while I was turning in my electronics, I couldn't stop crying.'The single mother of two and 2010 Haskell alumnus said last week she hasn't yet found a job and was struggling to find ways to replace the salary and benefits she lost. Like other Haskell employees, White Bull has refused to turn her back on the students she left behind and has helped some of them complete paperwork needed to turn, her students thanked her and other laid-off employees at a Sunday, March 2, event hosted by the off-campus Haskell Catholic Student Center. Inside the university's library, organizers served seven former employees fried chicken, quiches, salads, fruit and, of course, the Native potluck staple potato salad before placing blankets on their Bull's 10-year-old daughter stood beside her crying, along with many of the students.'I didn't realize how much we impacted their lives,' White Bull said. For many students, Haskell has not only been a place for learning but a place to connect to their Indigenous roots and to other Native students from more than 150 tribes across the Levering, Winnebago, is continuing a family tradition started by her grandmother and carried on by her mother, a former Miss Haskell.'Haskell is different because here it's an intertribal, international melting pot for tribes across the United States and Canada,' said the junior media communications and journalism said many, if not most, instructors intertwine Native culture and history into their courses and get to know their students so well that many, in turn, call them 'auntie' or 'uncle,' honorifics common in many Native cultures. Another Winnebago student attending Haskell, Marina DeCora, said attending Haskell has helped her reconnect to her Native identity, a connection nearly severed at the age of 7 when her parents divorced and she was forced to remain with her non-Native mother. 'I always knew there was a home for me somewhere,' she said. 'I probably would have just stayed lost.' The Indigenous studies student said she knew she wanted to attend Haskell after visiting campus and seeing many other students playing the same music she enjoyed.'I come to campus and everyone has the same kind of playlist,' she said, laughing. 'I find that really interesting.'On a chilly winter morning, Burt Miner, 20, walked to class past a stone archway in front of the school's athletic field. The Ponca, Otoe, Comanche and Cherokee student said he grew up around few other Native people and at Haskell has learned much about what it means to be Indigenous.'Seeing all the different tribes, different people from around the U.S., I think it's so cool just to hear about different cultures.' The day of the layoffs, Valentine's Day, began with heavy snow and below-zero temperatures that led to canceled classes at Haskell. Students spent the day in their dorms or at the library studying and visiting with other students. The Haskell campus is located in the southeast corner of a city of about 96,000 that is also home to the state's flagship university, the University of Kansas, where many Haskell students continue their studies after graduating. Other Haskell students, like Allison Levering, work at KU. Not only does Levering lead the Haskell student newspaper, The Indian Leader, she also serves as the lead anchor for 'Good Morning Indian Country,' a weekly Native news program hosted at KU and produced collaboratively by KU and Haskell said she learned Haskell had lost many of its faculty and staff to the federal layoffs while at the Haskell library – where baked goods for sale and Valentine's Day decorations graced shelves. Immediately, Levering got to work trying to find out key details: how many employees were laid off, how the university's leaders planned to handle the job losses, and what impact those losses would quickly realized she faced an uphill leaders have historically faced challenges communicating with students as they must first gain the approval of their inherently cautious, politically mindful supervisors within the federal Bureau of Indian Education, Levering institutional barriers became especially apparent Feb. 14.'There was so little that was given to us students,' Levering to comb the internet for more information, she began seeing news articles talking about the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who the Trump administration had laid off. But soon, she began seeing news stories about how the layoffs would impact Haskell.'A lot of them had the wrong idea about what was going on here,' she Leader staff began reaching out to university employees who had lost their jobs – including the newspaper's own faculty advisor – but found those employees knew little more than they student and employee interviews and, eventually, a statement from President Arpan, student reporters began to piece together the scope and impact of the layoffs. The university had lost one-fourth of its employees, including teachers and athletic staff, including a beloved athletic trainer.'He was a huge impact to all the student athletes, because they'd be going to him for advice and stuff and they'd be going to him to work out,' said sophomore business student and Haskell men's basketball player Dontrelle Denetso, Lewis Tate, Navajo, said he lost his news writing instructor, and even though the university replaced the instructor, it hasn't been the same.'Everything was all laid out for us and now it's all messed up,' he losses impacted nearly every academic department and led some to question, at least briefly, whether the university would be able to keep its doors hours, however, students, boosters and tribal leaders began voicing their support for an institution whose alumni includes legendary athletes like Olympic gold medalist and runner Billy Mills and Jim Thorpe, the country's first Native American Olympic gold Haskell Foundation began raising funds, and tribes offered support, including the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas, which paid for custodial his March 12 letter to students and employees, President Arpan promised to work to be more transparent, promising to provide weekly updates.'Our priority is to provide accurate updates once information and resources are finalized rather than release details that are not confirmed,' he said. 'Thank you for your support. Onward Haskell!' Haskell students haven't taken the layoffs banners and fists on the streets of Lawrence and before the Kansas state Capitol in Topeka, many of these future Native leaders have found their in the case of Tyler Moore, lost it — literally. Like so many others, the Indigenous studies senior marched in a protest on February 28 in downtown Lawrence, where he chanted so much that he lost his voice. 'Great way to lose it to be fair,' he said, laughing. The Cherokee Nation citizen serves as the Haskell 'brave,' an honorific position much like a high school prom king. He said the layoffs led to him losing his photography and archery teachers.'You had faculty who were already at capacity,' he said. 'Now they're just asked to do more and more and just being stretched way too thin.'He wants to become a historian, but first he needs to graduate.'You're juggling classwork and this situation all at the same time,' he addition to protesting, some students have used their voice in other two days before the Haskell layoffs, Marina DeCora had taken on the role of a representative of the Haskell Student Government said even before the layoffs, students were wrestling with a proposal by two Kansas congressional leaders that would transfer governance of Haskell from the federal government to the Haskell Board of Regents, an organization whose role with the university many students say they don't their questions to university administrators have largely gone unanswered, DeCora said. ICT sent a request for comment on March 5 to Board of Regents Interim President Dalton Henry but received no in the weeks after classes began, students began reporting concerns about not receiving their financial aid or student worker paychecks – problems that some students say have persisted, DeCora said.'Within the first week of this semester, it was absolute chaos,' she said. 'Nobody was listening to the students.'The loss of one-quarter of the university's employees only compounded the challenges already facing Haskell and led some students to disenroll, she said.'Right now the whole community is suffering. I'm 36 years old, you know. These are kids. They're kids,' she said, tearing they are being forced to grow up Dosela, who helped organize the student protests, said it was difficult at first to leave her eastern Arizona reservation, a picturesque place of mountains, trees, rivers and lakes, but a place also plagued by poverty, violence and drug and alcohol addiction.'It's what made me tough, and it's what made me ready to go out in the world,' she new home, she said, is Haskell, and she plans to continue fighting for the relatives she has made she prepared to leave the Haskell library last week, Dosela stopped to look at a handwritten note that White Bull left on her office door as she left for the last time. The note included a message from her 10-year-old daughter.'Bye Haskell. We'll miss you forever.' Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
New York Times
09-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Tribes and Students Sue Trump Administration Over Firings at Native Schools
A group of Native American tribes and students is suing the Trump administration to reverse its recent firing of federal workers at Native schools that they said has severely lowered their quality of education. The firings, part of the series of layoffs led by the Department of Government Efficiency that have cut thousands of federal jobs since January, included nearly one quarter of the staff members at the only two federally run colleges for Native people in the country: Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque. Instructors, a basketball coach, and security and maintenance workers were among those who were fired or forced to resign in February. Although the total number of layoffs was not clear on Sunday, the reductions also included employees at the central and regional offices of the Bureau of Indian Education, a federal agency. Some staff members, but not all, have been rehired, according to a statement from the Native American Rights Fund, which filed the suit on Friday in federal court in Washington. About 45,000 children are enrolled in bureau-funded schools in 23 states. As a result of the cuts, dozens of courses at the two colleges lost instructors, according to the lawsuit. And because of the loss of support staff and maintenance workers, school dorms were quickly overrun with garbage, students reported undrinkable brown water, dining halls failed to adequately feed students, and widespread power outages hampered students' ability to study. 'Unfortunately, these firings were done without preparation and without regard to the health and safety of the students, and that is a continuation of a history of neglect and disrespect,' Jacqueline De León, a lawyer for the tribes and students, said. 'We are here to fight to make sure that it doesn't continue.' Lawyers with the Native American Rights Fund filed the suit against the heads of the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education Programs. Plaintiffs included the tribal nations of the Pueblo of Isleta; the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation; and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Five students from the two colleges are also among the plaintiffs. A spokesman for the Interior Department, which houses the Bureaus of Indian Education and Indian Affairs, said the department does not comment on pending litigation. The federal government has a legal obligation, known as the federal Indian trust responsibility, to protect and maintain the special relationship it has with federally recognized tribes. Included in this obligation, which was supported by federal courts as early as 1831, are requirements to uphold tribal sovereignty, work with tribes on projects and policies that affect them, and respect tribes' right to make decisions in their own best interest. By not consulting with tribes on the firings, the lawsuit said, the government violated the trust requirement. 'Despite having a treaty obligation to provide educational opportunities to Tribal students, the federal government has long failed to offer adequate services,' Hershel Gorham, the lieutenant governor of Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, said in a statement. 'Just when the Bureau of Indian Education was taking steps to fix the situation, these cuts undermined all those efforts. These institutions are precious to our communities; we won't sit by and watch them fail.' The U.S. government has a fraught history with Native schools. Over more than 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Native children were sent to boarding schools, often after being removed from their homes, to assimilate with non-Native culture. Abuse and neglect were common at the original assimilation schools, and mass graves have been located near such institutions across the country. More than 100 people are buried in one such cemetery at Haskell. Federal funding of tribal schools has also steadily decreased since 2010, along with the enrollment of Native American and Alaska Native students. According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, Native American and Alaska Native students account for the smallest ethnic group in the country, making up less than 1 percent of students enrolled in postsecondary schools in 2021, the latest year for which data was available.
Washington Post
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Across Indian Country, mass firings at colleges open up age-old wounds
LAWRENCE, Kan. — When the oldest federally funded university for Native Americans lost nearly a quarter of its staff to the Trump administration's sweeping budget cuts, supporters organized protests, began fundraising and launched a letter-writing campaign pleading with officials to spare the school. Late this week, the supporters of Haskell Indian Nations University won a partial victory. Fourteen of 37 staff members are to be reinstated by Monday, including instructors, the dean of students and Adam Strom, the women's basketball coach who stayed on without pay to lead his team to a conference championship.
