First Nations Journal

The Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) June 26, 2025, sanction letter placing Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) on “Accredited on Notice” is the most significant documented evidence of federal mismanagement in the history of Indian Affairs.    The HLC sanction is not a Native narrative, nor a First Nations Journal narrative.  It is the accreditor’s own published finding that the Department of the Interior has failed to meet the minimum governance and fiduciary standards required of a federal trustee.

HLC-Action-Letter-Haskell-Indian-Nations-University-7.8.25.pdf

For decades the Department of Interior (DOI) has insisted the chronic instability at Haskell is the result of internal issues, cultural factors, or “unique challenges”.  The HLC sanction letter destroys that storyline.  It identifies the federal trustee-not Native students, not faculty, not the institution—as the root cause of the crisis.  The accreditor’s language is clinical, procedural, and unmistakable.  Haskell is at risk because DOI has not met the minimum standards required of any institution entrusted with federal authority over Indian education. 

The federal government’s fiduciary trust responsibility to Indian nations is not a slogan, a courtesy, or a policy reference.  It is a binding legal obligation, grounded in the Marshall Trilogy, reaffirmed in Seminole Nation and carried forward through statutes, appropriations and federal management of Indian trust property—including Indian education trust institutions such as Haskell Indian Nations University. 

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that when the United States assumes control over Indian assets, lands, funds, or institutions, it takes on the same duties as a private trustee.  Those duties include: 

• Loyal to the beneficiary—the trustee must act solely in the interest of Indian     
• Beneficiaries.
• Care and prudence—the trustee must manage trust assets with the highest degree of Skill and diligence.
• Full accountability, the trustee must provide accurate reporting, oversight, and Protection of trust property.
• Avoidance of self-interest—the trustee must avoid even the appearance of
• violating the trust.

These are not optional.  They are the boilerplate minimum for any trustee—public or private. 

Haskell Indian Nations University is not merely a school.  It is federal Indian educational trust property, held for the benefit of tribal nations and their citizens.  The federal trustee—through the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education—must

• Protect Haskell accreditation
• Maintain the campus, lands, and Haskell wetlands
• Ensure competent leadership
• Provide transparent oversight
• Uphold treaty-based educational obligations

Under federal law and long-standing doctrine, Secretary of the Interior Burgum is the ultimate federal trustee for Indian affairs.  Every major decision, every budget submission, every policy affecting Indian beneficiaries is approved under his authority.  Does Secretary Burgum understand what a trustee duty requires?  The evidence suggests he does not.   Ignoring meaningful consultation is a clear breach of trust responsibility.  Consultation is not a courtesy.  It is a legal duty rooted in: 

• Executive Orders    
• DOI policy
• Federal trust doctrine
• The federal government’s guardian-ward relationship

Haskell’s ongoing accreditation crisis, leadership instability, budget neglect, and the silence of federal trustees are not isolated administrative problems.  They are symptoms of a systemic failure of federal fiduciary responsibility.  The federal government recognizes Indian rights, but do not enforce it.  Indians pay the price as FNJ has warned.   

The U S Bureau of Indian Education provides Indian education trust services to over 400,000 Native Americans in K-12, elementary, post-secondary and higher education including Haskell Indian Nations University.  Haskell is the flagship of Indian education and closure of Haskell would signal dismantling of Indian education trust services to 575 Indian nations.  Secretary Burgum has described Indian colleges as “poor outcomes”. 

Bureau of Indian Education | Bureau of Indian Education

First Nations Journal’s position is simple:  the HLC sanction is the most consequential piece of evidence ever placed before Congress regarding DOI’s failure to uphold its trust responsibility in Indian education.  It is the first time in history that a federal controlled university has been sanctioned for federal mismanagement—not institutional misconduct.  That distinction matters.  It is the difference between blaming Native people and holding the federal government accountable. 

The HLC sanction letter makes clear that the risk to Haskell’s accreditation arises not from institutional deficiencies, but from systemic failures within DOI’s oversight, planning, and resource allocation.  The implications for Indian education and federal trust responsibility are profound. 

First Nations Journal respectfully requests that the Senate Committee on Indian affairs:

• Acknowledge the HLC sanction letter as authoritative evidence of DOI’s breach
• of trust responsibility in Indian education.
• Require DOI to provide a corrective action plan addressing the government
• failures identified by accreditor.
• Condition FY 2027 appropriations on demonstrable progress toward meeting
• Accreditor-mandated standards.
• Enter the HLC sanction letter into the Senate record to ensure transparency and Historical accountability.   

About – Indian Affairs Committee

On May 27, FNJ will formally cite the HLC sanction letter as the central evidence of DOI’s breach of trust.  We do so because the accreditor has already done what DOI refuses to do; document the truth.  The sanction letter is not an opinion.  It is not advocacy.  It is not political.  It is a regulatory finding issued under federal law by the body responsible for determining whether Haskell may continue to operate as an accredited institution.   

FNJ asserts that Congress cannot responsibly evaluate DOI’s FY 2027 budget request without acknowledging the HLC findings.  The sanction letter demonstrates that DOI’s governance failures are not abstract—they threaten the accreditation, stability, and future of the only university directly controlled by the United States.  The federal trustee has placed Indian students at risk.   The accreditor has confirmed it.  And now Congress must confront it.   

FNJ will continue to place the HLC sanction letter into the congressional record, the public record, and the historical record.  The truth is no longer disputable.  The only question remaining is whether the Department of the Interior will correct is failures—or whether Congress will require it to. 

If Secretary Burgum were to acknowledge DOI’s breach of rust and commit to correcting the structural failures identified by HLC, the accreditor would have no basis to escalate its sanction.  Until that occurs, FNJ will ensure that the evidence remains visible, undeniable, and impossible for federal leadership to ignore.   

First Nations Journal looks forward to the United States and Congress fulfilling its trust and treaty responsibility to Native Americans. 

                                            FIRST NATIONS JOURNAL

M’gwitch, 🪶

Steve Cadue

Kickapoo