{"id":155049,"date":"2025-06-23T16:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=155049"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:54:41","slug":"republican-lawmakers-continue-investigation-into-serious-dysfunction-at-tribal-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/06\/23\/republican-lawmakers-continue-investigation-into-serious-dysfunction-at-tribal-colleges\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican lawmakers continue investigation into ‘serious dysfunction’ at tribal colleges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tJoint Oversight Hearing | Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Joint Oversight Hearing: Enhancing Educational Outcomes in Indian Country: Postsecondary Education at the Bureau of Indian Education<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Republican lawmakers continue investigation into ‘serious dysfunction’ at tribal colleges<\/div>\r\n
Monday, June 23, 2025<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nRepublican lawmakers are holding another hearing as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct at Haskell Indian Nations University<\/a> (HINU) and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute<\/a> (SIPI).\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe House Committee on Natural Resources<\/a> and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce<\/a> are meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss what they are calling “serious dysfunction” at both institutions of higher learning. The Republican-drafted hearing memo<\/a> accuses the administration of prior president Joe Biden, a Democrat, of covering up problems at the colleges.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“Throughout the Committees\u2019 ongoing investigation, the Biden administration repeatedly stonewalled Congressional and community efforts to address mismanagement, waste, fraud, and abuse at HINU and SIPI,” the 12-page memo<\/a> states. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nHearing Memo<\/a>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe committees previously met in July 2024<\/a> to address allegations of sexual assault, harassment, bullying, nepotism, theft, retaliation, waste, fraud and abuse at HINU, located in Kansas. Tuesday’s hearing marks the first time that SIPI, located in New Mexico, is being discussed.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“Both HINU and SIPI suffer from low graduation rates and accreditation problems. According to\r\nthe National Center for Education Statistics, the HINU graduation rate in 2023 was 43 percent,\r\nwhile SIPI\u2019s stood at 9 percent,” the memo reads. “These numbers include all full-time, first-time degree, or certificate-seeking undergraduate students.”\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAccording to the two committees, the sole witness for the hearing is Scott Davis<\/a>, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who is a political appointee at the Department of the Interior<\/a>. Although his stated title is Senior Advisor to the Secretary, he is currently exercising the duties of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, a position that is currently vacant in President Donald Trump’s administration.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nTrump has nominated William \u201cBilly\u201d Kirkland, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. However, he has yet to go before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> for his confirmation hearing, which was to take place this Wednesday, June 25, before being postponed<\/a> due to scheduling issues.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \"Haskell<\/a>

A bronze sculpture by Craig Dan Goseyun depicts an Apache hoop and pole game player. Photo: miracc<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nShould Kirkland be confirmed to the post, he would oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs<\/a> (BIA) as well as the Bureau of Indian Education<\/a> (BIE). The two agencies have been targeted by Trump as his administration reduces the size of the federal workforce and the amount of federal spending.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“After years of the Biden administration failing to address the issues\r\nfacing tribal students, the Committee looks forward to continuing to work with the Trump\r\nadministration\u2019s DOI to ensure that Indian students receive a quality education in the quality\r\nenvironment that they deserve,” the memo reads.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe hearing, which is titled \u201cEnhancing Educational Outcomes in Indian Country: Postsecondary Education at the Bureau of Indian Education,\u201d takes place at 10:30am Eastern in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building. A livestream will be available at youtu.be\/FY8uEpfinpM<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Committee Notices<\/div>\r\nEnhancing Educational Outcomes in Indian Country: Postsecondary Education at the Bureau of Indian Education<\/a> (June 24, 2025)
\r\nEnhancing Educational Outcomes in Indian Country: Postsecondary Education at the Bureau of Indian Education<\/a> (June 24, 2025)
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Relevant Documents <\/div>\r\nHearing Notice<\/a> |\r\nHearing Notice (TIME CHANGE)<\/a> | \r\nHearing Memo<\/a>\r\n

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Related Stories<\/div>
New Mexico In Depth: Tribal colleges face major cut in federal funding<\/a> (June 20, 2025)<\/div>
VIDEO: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on Indian Education<\/a> (March 18, 2025)<\/div>
\u2018Demoralizing\u2019: Lawsuit blasts Trump administration for firings at tribal colleges<\/a> (March 17, 2025)<\/div>
\u2018Mr. Secretary, Why are you silent?\u2019: Interior Department cuts impact Indian Country<\/a> (March 4, 2025)<\/div>
Haskell Faculty: Trail of broken treaties continues with mass terminations at tribal college<\/a> (February 21, 2025)<\/div>
Haskell Faculty: \u2018A beacon of hope and progress for Indigenous-based education\u2019<\/a> (September 12, 2024)<\/div>
AUDIO: Investigating how the Biden Administration Ignored Cries for Help from Students at Haskell Indian Nations University<\/a> (July 24, 2024)<\/div>
Investigating how the Biden Administration Ignored Cries for Help from Students at Haskell Indian Nations University<\/a> (July 22, 2024)<\/div>
Indian Country set for big and busy week on Capitol Hill<\/a> (July 22, 2024)<\/div>
Republicans seek information about alleged misconduct at Haskell Indian Nations University<\/a> (July 2, 2024)<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Congressional committees are holding another hearing into alleged misconduct at Haskell Indian Nations University and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,20,1,14],"tags":[5366,117,52,5905,118,75,121,1236,53,835,167,85,213,6544,91,3180,165],"class_list":["post-155049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-indian-trust","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-bia","tag-bie","tag-billy-kirkland","tag-doi","tag-donald-trump","tag-employment","tag-haskell","tag-joe-biden","tag-kansas","tag-new-mexico","tag-republicans","tag-scia","tag-scott-davis","tag-senate","tag-sipi","tag-tribal-colleges","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-EkN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/23\/haskellindiannationsuniversity-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155049"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155111,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049\/revisions\/155111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}