Can enforceable Indian treaty rights provide the ‘crown jewel pinnacle of quality education and protect Jane Doe and John Doe as envisioned by Representative Tracey Mann, (R-Kan) at the federal government Haskell Indian Nations University. Plaintiff Jane Doe vs. Haskell Indian Nations University, et.al., had no Indian treaty rights protection and her case was dismissed due to sovereign immunity of the federal employees of the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The plaintiff Jane Doe case was settled in an out of court settlement assuring confidentiality and no accountability from the BIE, the federal trustee ward guardian of Haskell
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Jane Doe has not gone away with the out of court settlement and Jane Doe’s abusive experience is the impetus for the proposed Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act. The federal court Jane Doe case can be presented as exhibit #1 for argument in the enactment of the proposed Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act. The Jane Doe trauma experience is also exhibited in the Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S.761) proposed by Senator Lisa Murkowsk (R-AK) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The two proposed inter-generational legislations are similar in purpose in accountability of the past, present and the future. We must learn from History or doomed to repeat it.
The BIE officials stonewall official inquiry from federal agencies including lawmakers. The lawmakers make federal appropriations to Haskell without sound data, facts and figures. Meanwhile the chaos and crisis at Haskell spirals with federal dollars approved by the Congress. Haskell operates in severely dysfunction as described by the congressional hearing report of 2024 and cited in the Findings of the proposed Haskell Indian Nations Improvement Act (HINU).
The U S Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA was established to study and address the unique problems, including education facing American Indians, Alaska Natives and Hawaiian Natives. The SCIA is empowered to alleviate problems in Indian Affairs and submits their findings to the Congress for enactment into law. The chaos and crisis at Haskell are long standing due to a blind eye turned to the breach of fiduciary trust responsibility by the officials of the U S Bureau of Indian Affairs/BIE, noted by Representative Tracey Mann (R-Kan). The BIA/BIE officials do not deny the ‘blind eye practice at Haskell as antiquated federal Indian education law and policy is followed.
Indians are not the problem, but we suffer the consequences as cited in the congressional hearing report of 2024. Indian people beneficiaries are collateral damage of failed federal government trust responsibility. The BIE violated their ward guardian fiduciary trust responsibility as found in the findings of the proposed Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act.
Indian treaties are not symbolic nor gratuitous and carry the force of law if genuinely enforced. We look forward to the U S Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and Congress alleviating the chaos and crisis at Haskell to provide genuine Indian Self-Determination for Indian beneficiaries of the 574 federally recognized Indian tribes of Indian Country.
M’gwitch,
Steve Cadue
Kickapoo Nation Kansas
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