photo by: Mike Yoder

Parents and friends celebrate the graduates during the Haskell Indian Nations University commencement ceremony Friday, May 9, 2025.

The Trump Administration’s proposed budget for 2026 that would slash federal funding to Haskell Indian Nations University and other postsecondary tribal institutions by 90% would “devastate” the university to the point it could not function, the Faculty Senate of Haskell is warning.

The proposal is included in the budget request from the Department of the Interior to Congress, which was released publicly earlier this month. The document mentions only the two federally controlled tribal colleges — Haskell and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute — but notes the request for postsecondary programs will drop from more than $182 million this year to just over $22 million for 2026.

“In one fell swoop, this administration asks Congress to sign off on a budget that defunds Tribal Colleges beyond any hope of functionality and without appropriate due process,” the faculty group said in a news release this week, calling the threat “existential” to Haskell and its sister Tribal Colleges and Universities.

The release particularly noted that the limitation of PELL Grants and programs such as TRIO would significantly impact educational opportunities for Native Americans. It additionally noted that about a quarter of faculty and staff were abruptly laid off earlier this year, and even though they were reinstated, some chose not to return, and a hiring freeze has exacerbated staffing levels.

Haskell has historically been underfunded, and further financial decimation would imperil the self-determination of Native Americans and the preservation of Indigenous culture and language, the release said.

“Even though Haskell has survived persistent neglect, the proposed budget cuts are a clear and distinct sign that we are at a critical breaking point,” the release said. “Any further budgetary cuts would be a grave blow to our ability to function and exist at all.

Haskell is the largest and oldest intertribal university in the nation, with 153 federally recognized tribes represented on campus. The Faculty Senate distinguishes Haskell’s relationship with the federal government as a legally recognized “partnership” and not as a diversity initiative.

Native Americans fall under a political identity category because their status is defined not just by race or ethnicity, “but by their legal status as members of sovereign Tribal Nations that have a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. federal government,” the release said.

The U.S. government has an obligation of due process toward the university as well as specific legal obligations to uphold treaty and trust responsibilities under federal law — “legal and moral imperatives that we, the faculty at Haskell, respectfully implore our members of Congress to uphold,” the release said.

As the Journal-World reported, a bill was recently introduced in Congress that would remove control of Haskell from the federal government and let the university govern itself while still receiving federal funding.