Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Photo: San Carlos Apache College Vice President and Provost Lisa Eutsey, left, and San Carlos adjunct professor Marcus Macktima commencement on May 17, 2025. (Samuel Meade)
President Donald Trump is proposing drastic funding cuts for tribal colleges and universities.
KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on institutions in Arizona and New Mexico.
“Without doubt, this is threatening to close their doors.”
Ahniwake Rose (Cherokee) is president and CEO of the nonprofit American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
These schools depend on three federal agencies to stay financially afloat.
“If you take away any one of those legs, you know that stool will fall. We actually saw flat funding at both the Department of Education and the USDA.”
As for the Interior Department …
“Ironically, the agency that’s really in charge of the trust responsibilities to Indian people is the one that zeroed out funding.”
The White House did not respond to KJZZ’s requests when asked to explain why.
But Scott Davis (Standing Rock Sioux), senior advisor to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, testified during a congressional hearing that these huge cuts are nothing new.
“We’ve been through the ebbs and flows of funding with Congress for a long time. We’ve seen cuts, we’ve seen increases, we’ve seen it all, but we’ve always been resilient.”
Map of tribal colleges and universities nationwide. (Courtesy American Indian Higher Education Consortium)
Tohono O’odham Community College president Stephen Schoonmaker worries this is nothing short of a death sentence.
“Some tribal colleges will die quickly and others will die slowly, but we cannot sustain without the obligated funds that should be coming and have come for a long time.”
While the community college is home to nearly 1,200 students with four campuses statewide, Schoonmaker says they are still dependent on the feds.
More than half of its operational funding comes from the Bureau of Indian Education.
He fears funding shortfalls could have cascading effects, like losing their accreditation, which took years to achieve.
“Our accreditor is going to say, ‘Are you fiscally stable?’ And if you aren’t, they’re just going to look at that as a red flag.”
And the looming cuts could discourage student interest, with Schoonmaker saying the mere threat hurts enrollment.
“Why would a student say, ‘I’m going to go to Tohono O’odham Community College’ when they may lose 90% of a major funding source?”
The Institute of American Indian Arts campus in Santa Fe, N.M. (Photo: Jason S. Ordaz / IAIA)
In Santa Fe, N.M., the Institute of American Indian Arts is bracing for the Trump administration to do away with its $13 million appropriation.
“They’ve never given us a reason, didn’t expect this one though.”
President Robert Martin (Cherokee) never imagined his summer being bogged down by grave budget talks before retiring later this month.
Now it’s up to lawmakers in DC to decide the fate of this prestigious arts school in the Southwest.
“In our name, it has Indian and arts, and both of those, I don’t think, are considered to be very important to this current administration.”
Ann Coulter at CPAC 2013. (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Leaders of Native organizations and tribes are speaking out against conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s recent post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, which she stated “we didn’t kill enough Indians,” with a photo of a Native professor.
Native American Rights Fund Executive Director John Echohawk, in a statement Monday, called the post “ignorant”, “immoral”, and “genocidal language”.
View this post on Instagram
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. shared a long response on Facebook, calling the post beyond abhorrent and dangerous hate speech.
Navajo Nation council speaker Crystalyne Curley, left, and Billy Kirkland shake hands with guests at the Navajo Nation Washington Office. Kirkland was honored at the office during a reception in January. (Photo: Antonia Gonzales)
The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has a hearing scheduled this month to consider the nomination of William Kirkland for Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.
Kirkland (Navajo) is a political strategist from Georgia and served in the first Trump administration.
The National Congress of American Indians applauded his nomination in February, stating the position is critical to upholding the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities, and ensuring the effective delivery of services to tribes.
Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.
