The Higher Learning Commission on July 8, 2025, (HLC) placed Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) on sanction “Accredited on Notice”. Haskell faces loss of HLC accreditation and collapse if the HLC findings are not ameliorated. On April 15, 2026, the Lawrence Journal World reported that Senator Jerry Moran (R-KAN) and Representative Tracey Mann (R-KAN) issued a formal request for additional feedback from HINU faculty and staff on the proposed Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act. Their letter emphasized that Haskell employees “know Haskell best” and that their firsthand experience is “essential” to shaping legislation intended to stabilize the institution’s future.
HLC-Action-Letter-Haskell-Indian-Nations-University-7.8.25.pdf
The Department of the Interior, (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA) Bureau of Indian Education, (BIE) trustees have chosen to remain silent and have provided no public Recovery Plan to the HLC sanction findings to the year-old HLC sanction letter. The Haskell trustees’ indifference to the HLC sanction portends immanent HLC withdrawal of accreditation for Haskell.
First Nations Journal recognizes this development as a significant moment in the ongoing federal acknowledgement of Haskell’s leadership instability, suppression of faculty and student speech, and the absence of lawful tribal consultation required under federal trust responsibility doctrine. The April 15 LJW article confirms that Congress is now directly seeking internal perspectives—yet the request itself exposes deeper structural failures.
Moran and Mann’s letter instruct Haskell employees to follow federal agency rules governing official capacity communications and notes they may submit feedback anonymously in an “individual capacity”. FNJ has repeatedly documented that Haskell faculty, and students must obtain administrative approval before voicing dissent—an unconditional and trust-breach condition that chills academic freedom and suppresses tribal beneficiary rights. Indian beneficiaries surrender their treaty rights to receive education at Haskell.
Thus, while Congress requests feedback, Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) restrictions continue to prevent employees from speaking freely. This contradiction underscores the core problem: Haskell cannot meaningfully participate in reform discussions while under a trustee that restricts its voice.
Senator Moran has repeatedly stated that BIE has neglected and mismanaged Haskell, failed to respond to congressional inquiries, and failed to meet basic infrastructure needs.
Deferred maintenance is a catastrophic backlog at Haskell and compounds due to neglect including Haskell Wetlands. The neglect of deferred maintenance at Haskell is a critical indicator of not meeting HLC standard of sustainability. The Haskell Wetlands are in a state of degradation and condemnation may be a strategy to eliminate the backlog of deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance costs are catastrophic and insurmountable at Haskell and sustainability is a core HLC standard.
The record is clear that Department of the Interior has not protected Haskell Wetlands and Secretary Burgum’s FY 2027 budget will cut Indian education programs not considered essential. Transferring Haskell Wetlands to other jurisdictions to eliminate backlog deferred maintenance costs is considered cost effective.
The U S House of Representatives described Haskell as “severely dysfunctional” and the Crisis Congress continues to fund. It makes no sense. It defies the principles of public stewardship, and it exposes the structural flaw at the heart of federal trust responsibility:
A trustee with sovereign immunity cannot be held accountable for its failures.
In federal oversight language, “severe dysfunction” is not rhetorical, it is a technical assessment meaning:
- The institution cannot reliably distinguish right from wrong
- The institution cannot self-correct
- The institution cannot protect its own beneficiaries
- The institution is no longer capable of fulfilling its mission.
This is the federal government’s own judgment of Haskell. And, yet the federal government continues to fund the very trustees whose decisions produced the dysfunction.
First Nations Journal has already documented that any legitimate reform must include:
- Haskell students, wo are the primary Indian beneficiaries
- The Haskell Board of Regents, whose May 1 letter documented severe dysfunction
- Tribal Nations, wo hold treaty rights and must be consulted under federal law
- Former students and faculty, who carry institutional memory essential to reform
The April 15 LJW article confirms congressional recognition of Haskell’s governance crisis. But the Department of the Interior—the trustee with legal authority over Haskell—has issued no public response to the Faculty Senate’s March 9 letter, the Baard of Regent’ May 1 letter, or the HLC sanction.
Congress acknowledges the HLC sanction loss of accreditation crisis at Haskell, but the Department of the Interior remains silent. Secretary Burgum’s silence is complicity and lack of qualification of a university trustee which caused the HLC sanction “Accredited on Notice”.
The federal Indian education flagship known as Haskell Indian Nations University is not simply drifting; it has been left without a rudder, without a navigator, and without a destination. The Haskell trustees have chosen passivity over responsibility and Haskell is on the brink of collapse. Control is not about micromanagement; it is about establishing the systems that every accredited university must have:
- Stable leadership
- Functioning government
- Financial controls
- Long-term planning
- Accountability mechanisms that work
The HLC sanction made clear that these systems do not exist at Haskell because the federal trustees never built them. Indians pay the price.
Federal government inertia and congress’ polarized environment exacerbate the “severe dysfunction” condition at Haskell.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) must advance and recommend the Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act (S.2140) be enacted by Congress.
First Nations Journal will remain vigilant and provide voice to the Seven Generations Principle that every decision we make today should consider the impact on the next seven generations, emphasizing long-term responsibility, sustainability, and interconnectedness.
It is a guiding teaching for ethical living, governance, and environmental stewardship.
This month America 250 will celebrate the greatest democracy and freedom in history on Native American lands the foundation upon which America was built. We are still here.
FIRST NATIONS JOURNAL
M’gwitch, 🪶
Steve Cadue
Kickapoo
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