Three Tribal Nations (Pueblo of Isleta, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes) along with Native students (Ella Bowen, Kaiya Brown, and Danielle Ledesma) have filed amended challenges against various US officials and agencies for unlawfully failing to consult with Tribal Nations on two sets of key agency actions directly impacting the education of Native American students.
Filed on Thursday, the challenges are against the United States Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, the United States Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, Wiliam Kirkland, Director, Bureau of Indian Education, Tony Dearman, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the United States Department of Education.
Tribal Nations and students had originally sued the US Department of Interior and Office of Indian Affairs in March 2025 challenging staff reductions at the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and BIE-run schools. The Nations said the mass firings dramatically reduced the Bureau of Indian Education's workforce in a manner that continues to harm Native students, including students at Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute. The initial complaint challenged those firings in part because the administration failed to consult with Tribal Nations before their implementation.
The amended complaint, filed by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges two interagency agreements, one between the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education and the other between the Department of Education and the Department of Labor. Taken together, the agreements restructure how the federal government delivers on its legal obligation to provide for Native students' education. The administration also failed to consult with Tribal Nations before executing and implementing the interagency agreements.
"The federal government is attempting to radically restructure how it provides education for our children without consulting Tribal Nations despite federal law that gives us a clear say here," said Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Chairman Joseph Rupnick.
"Refusing to consult with Tribal Nations before moving programs and funding out of the Department of Education is yet another breach of the Bureau of Indian Education's responsibility to our students and our Tribal governments," said Pueblo of Isleta Governor Eugene Jiron.
"These are real issues affecting real students and schools, with a pattern and practice by the federal government of failing to consult or inadequately consulting Tribal Nations despite their clear legal obligations to do so," said NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Marinelli.
"We intend to hold BIA accountable for its failures in meeting their obligations in supporting the education of Native students."
NARF said in a statement those agreements move programs, services, and funding supporting Tribes and Tribal members from the Department of Education to the Departments of Interior and the Department of Labor, "even though those agencies lack any expertise in the programs, services, or their management, let alone the resources to execute them effectively".
