First Nations Journal

Congress’ prolonged inaction and negligent oversight of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affair, Bureau of Indian Education trustees has allowed Haskell Indian Nations University to begin the 2026-2027 academic year under Higher Learning Commission (HLC) sanction, severe dysfunction, and unsafe facility conditions, leaving students exposed to institutional risk without disclosure.  Congress continues to ignore the acute crisis at Haskell—a crisis formally documented by the HLC’s sanction evidence findings and compounded by years of deferred maintenance, unsafe facilities, and environmental hazards.

Public-Disclosure-Notice-Haskell-Indian-Nations-University.pdf

Representative Tracey Mann’s (R-KAN) statement of the federal government turning a blind eye to the federal mismanagement at Haskell is substantiated in the HLC July 2025 sanction placed against Haskell.  The Haskell Trustees act with abandonment as they recognize that Congress doesn’t enforce Indian Rights. 

Given the indifference and inaction of the Haskell trustees to the HLC sanction, the HLC

has no choice but to withdraw Haskell accreditation. 

The Haskell accreditation crisis must be addressed decisively and with urgency.   

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs SCIA is the only congressional body with the

Jurisdiction authority, and fiduciary mandate to intervene.  The DOI/BIA/BIE have withheld critical information, obstructed transparency, and kept Congress in the dark.  Voluntary disclosure has failed.  Only subpoena authority—backed by sworn testimony-can compel the Haskell trustees to produce the full record of environmental hazards, deferred maintenance, accreditation correspondence, and internal decision-making that led to the HLC sanction. 

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs – GovTrack.us

For 140 years, Haskell Indian Nations University has existed as a federal institution created to serve Tribal Nations.  Its academic mission is not discretionary, not optional, and not subject to political convenience.  It is a direct expression of the United States’ trust responsibility to Tribal Nations.  Today, that responsibility is in crisis.  The Higher Learning Commission’s sanction for loss of accreditation–the most severe threat in Haskell’s history—demands immediate congressional attention, oversight and federal appropriation.  Yet the Department of the Interior’s FY2027 budget presentation to Congress omitted the HLC sanction entirely, leaving lawmakers uninformed about the existential danger facing the only federally operated Tribal university in the nation.

This omission is not a bureaucratic oversight; it is a breach of trust.  And it is precisely why the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs must exercise its subpoena authority to compel full disclosure from the Department of the Interior regarding Haskell’s accreditation crisis, its financial condition, and its failure to meet HLC sustainability standards. 

Congress cannot fulfill its oversighting role if federal agencies withhold critical information.  The HLC sanction is not a minor compliance issue—it is the final stage before accreditation withdrawal.  If accreditation is lost in December 2026, Haskell will close.  Students will be displaced.  Degrees will be invalidated.  Tribal Nations will lose a cornerstone institution of cultural, academic, and civic development. 

SCIA’s subpoena authority exists for moments exactly like this:  when federal agencies fail to provide the needed information that Congress needs to protect federally chartered institutions.  The Department of the Interior’s silence has obstructed Congress’s ability to evaluate the severity of the crisis, assess the financial needs required for compliance, and determine whether federal trusteeship is being carried out responsibly. 

A subpoena is not punitive.  It is corrective.  It restores transparency where the executive branch has failed to provide it.  It ensures Congress receives the documentation necessary to understand the full scope of HLCs findings, including the financial deficiencies that place Haskell out of compliance with HLC stainability standards. 

HLC’s standards are clear: an accredited institution must demonstrate the financial capacity to fulfill its core academic mission.  That means stable funding for faculty, academic programs, student services, infrastructure, technology, and institutional governance.  No university in the United States can meet accreditation requirements without meaningful predictable financial support. 

Haskell has never been provided with such support.

The federal government has historically funded Haskell through inconsistent, insufficient appropriations that do not align with modern accreditation requirements.  The DOI FY2027 budget continues this pattern, offering no sustainability plan, no emergency intervention, and no acknowledgement of the accreditation crisis.  Without a Sustainability Budget, Haskell cannot meet HLC’s standards.  Without meeting those standards, Haskell cannot retain accreditation.  Without accreditation, Haskell cannot survive. 

First Nations Journal Sustainability Budget narrative is not intended to be precise at this stage.  It is intended to be unmistakably clear: Congress must appropriate meaningful funding to Haskell now.  The exact dollar amount can be refined later, but the principle is non-negotiable.  Sustainability requires financial wherewithal.  Financial wherewithal is federal trust responsibility.  And trust responsibility is not fulfilled through silence, omission, or austerity budgets. 

The United States cannot claim to uphold its trust responsibility while allowing Haskell to fail accreditation due to federal underfunding.  Trust responsibility is not symbolic—it is operational.  It requires resources.  It requires planning.  It requires Congress to appropriate funds sufficiently to sustain the institution’s academic mission. 

HLC’s sustainability standards are, in effect, a modern articulation of trust responsibility, the federal government must provide the financial capacity, necessary for Haskell to function as a real university, not symbolic one.  Anything less is a breach of trust. 

Congress must act, SCIA must intervene.  The Department of the Interior must be compelled—through subpoena if necessary—to provide the information Congress needs to craft a Sustainability Budget that meets accreditation requirements and protect Haskell’s future. 

FNJ states plainly:

• The HLC sanction is the greatest crisis in Haskell’s history
• The Department of the Interior’s omission of the sanction in the FYH2027 budget    
• SCIA must use the subpoena authority to obtain full documentation of the crisis
• Congress must appropriate a Sustainability Budget sufficient to meet HLC
• Standards and fulfill the federal trust responsibility
• Without meaningful federal funding, Haskell will lose accreditation and close

First Nations will document this crisis until Congress acts.

                                                  FIRST NATIONS JOURNAL

M’gwitch, 🪶

Steve Cadue

Kickapoo