How you can show up for others

When federal support for TCUs is cut or withheld, the consequences are immediate and severe:

1. Fewer scholarships: Many Native students rely on financial aid to attend college. Reduced funding means fewer opportunities to complete degrees.
2. Loss of essential services: TCUs provide daycare, job training, and community programs that benefit entire reservations and rural towns.
3. Staff layoffs & program closures: Underfunded TCUs cannot attract or retain qualified faculty, leading to canceled programs and reduced course offerings.
4. Economic and cultural erosion: TCUs play a vital role in preserving Native languages and traditions. Without them, Indigenous knowledge systems suffer.

These consequences are not hypothetical – they are already happening. While budgets change, disappear, and reappear overnight, TCUs and the students they serve are caught in a period of instability, unsure whether colleges will continue classes and students will finish their degrees.

At Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnical Institute (SIPI), the Trump administration’s decision to downsize the federal government’s workforce has resulted in 30% of staff being removed from their posts. Haskell and SIPI are overseen by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and its staff are technically employees of the federal government. The BIE was targeted specifically for some of the largest workforce reductions in this recent round of funding cuts.

What Can Be Done?

The fight for Native education is not just about keeping schools open—it’s about ensuring Native students have the same opportunities as their peers nationwide. The federal government has a responsibility to uphold its treaty obligations and fully fund TCUs.

How you can take action:

• Call your representatives and urge them to support full funding for TCUs.
• Advocate for exemptions for institutions like Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) to reinstate lost staff and resources.
• Raise awareness about the critical role of TCUs in Native and rural communities.

Without federal accountability, Native education will continue to be at risk. Tribal Colleges and Universities are not just institutions of learning—they are lifelines. Ensuring their success means keeping a centuries-old promise to Indigenous peoples and investing in the future of Native communities.

Click Here to Contact Your Representative

Here is a simple script to get you started:

Hello, my name is (blank). My zip code is (tell them your zip code) and I am a supporter of tribal college education and the American Indian College Fund.

Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, the Nation’s oldest and only federally chartered Tribal Colleges are in a crisis due to the implementation of EO 14210 and the White House memo on hiring freezes.

In the last week, each institution lost over 24 percent of its staff – including student safety personnel and instructors.

This is preventing a Native student’s ability to complete courses, programs, and receive student support services—and interfering with students’ completion of the higher education they paid for.

I am requesting that Haskell and SIPI be exempted from the hiring freeze and that employees terminated due to EO 14210 be reinstated.

If you need additional information, you can contact Moriah O’Brien, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s VP of Congressional and Federal Relations, at MOBrien@aihec.org or 703-838-0400.

Thank you for your time! I appreciate your help.