Tribal citizens are among communities navigating the impacts of massive cuts in federal spending and the effects of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
A funding increase for tribal colleges and universities announced before the shutdown was welcome news, but college leaders remain uneasy about the government’s financial commitments.
Those federal dollars are part of the U.S. trust responsibilities, some of the country’s oldest legal obligations, and tribal college and university (TCU) presidents and Native American education advocates worry they could be further eroded, threatening the passage of Indigenous knowledge to new generations.
There are more than three dozen tribal colleges and universities across the country that the Trump administration proposed cutting funding to earlier this year.
