DOGE targets tribal education institutions

WASHINGTON, DC—Every fight has at least two adversaries, and a court battle has ensued between the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). On March 7, in DC district court, NARF filed suit on behalf of three Indian tribes against Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Bryan Mercier, and Director of BIE Tony Dearman. The tribal plaintiffs include the Pueblo of Isleta, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

The complaint reads: “COMPLAINT Plaintiffs, three federally-recognized Tribal Nations and five impacted students file this action challenging the Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) failure to consult with Tribes and asserting other violations regarding the BIE’s reorganization/restructuring and reduction of staff at BIE’s central and regional offices and the two BIE-operated post-secondary institutions, Haskell Indian Nations University, and Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief.”

In 2005, the Office of Indian Education Programs was renamed the Bureau of Indian Education. RFK Jr, as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, was able to stop the workforce reduction at Indian Health Service (IHS) because IHS operates under HHS. However, the BIE operates under the Interior Department.

The mission of BIE is “to provide high-quality, culturally relevant education to Native American students, supporting their academic success while respecting their tribal heritage and sovereignty.”

BIE oversees around 42,000 students, in 183 schools operating in 23 states. Tony Dearman (Cherokee) has been director of the BIE since the Obama Administration of 2016. He is not a Trump appointee, but he now serves at the pleasure of the current president, and must apply DOGE workforce reduction policy.

DOGE is regarded as the brainchild of Elon Musk, the richest man in human history and a tech entrepreneur. It was established by an executive order signed by President Trump back on January 20. In addition to cutting fraud and waste from federal bureaucracy, the DOGE mission is to modernize federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity. Musk is the director of DOGE, directing a staff of 100, and the youth of the staff has become a controversy. This team consists of software engineers, information security experts, financial analysts, and Human Resource professionals. DOGE teams are dispersed throughout federal agencies, empowered to act on the department’s mission. DOGE came out of the gate with an operating budget of $750,000. But after a few weeks of getting its feet wet, the budget was increased to $14.4 million. Plans are to eventually double the staff to 200. The goal of DOGE is to achieve $2 trillion in savings, at which point President Trump has said he would like to send every taxpaying American a “DOGE dividend” check of $5000. Currently, DOGE has only saved taxpayer’s $105 billion, and so those dividend checks are at least a year down the pike.

NARF was founded in 1970, and specific information about its operating budget is not available. NARF is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the rights, resources, and sovereignty of Native American tribes and individuals, and has taken up legal action on behalf of tribes from Maine to Southern California.

NARF alleges in the complaint that the BIE has “well-documented and persistent inadequacies in operating its schools, range from fiscal mismanagement to failure to provide adequate education to inhospitable buildings.” NARF then states that to address these inadequacies and lack of accountability “Congress has enacted strong and unequivocal tribal consultation laws.”

None of the tribes or educational institutions impacted by DOGE workforce reduction were consulted by any federal agency.

In one case, the head coach of the Haskell Indian Nations University women’s basketball team, Adam Strom, was terminated by DOGE. Other employees affected at Haskell were professors, custodial staff, and administrative personnel.

Strom had the team positioned for a big post season run, which would have been over by the end of the month, but DOGE terminated him leaving the team without their coach. Strom volunteered to coach the team for no pay and led them to a conference championship which earned them a spot in the NAIA National Women’s Basketball Tournament.

In the complaint NARF states, “The Tribal Nations and Individual Students seek a declaratory judgment that the BIE RIFs (Reduction in Force) and restructuring were in violation of obligations and rights under 25 U.S.C. §§ 2003 and 2011, including Tribal rights to exercise control of priority setting and staffing at BIE schools, Native students’ rights to quality education, and rights to safe and secure school environments. The Tribal Nations request a preliminary injunction vacating the BIE decisions already made and actions taken in violation of the Tribal consultation requirements under 25 U.S.C. §§ 2003 and 2011(b); to cease future BIE decisions and actions that are in violation of the Tribal consultation requirements; and requiring BIE to consult with Tribal Nations as required by law. The Tribal Nations and Individual Students request a permanent injunction barring further RIFs and restructuring that result in unlawful outcomes for Tribes and Native American students.”

NARF’s complaint does not challenge the authority of DOGE, but focuses on the lack of consultation, which is required by law, before applying any workforce reductions. In addition, NARF argues that these RIF’s violate the BIE obligation of the federal government toward the tribes and individuals named in the suit.

Court battles, especially involving the federal government, can often take years to get a ruling, and so there is no way to know when or if the complaint will protect tribal institutions or individuals. RFK Jr was able to avoid bad optics by intervening at HHS, but nothing has been done about the bad optics of terminating a basketball coach right before the post season tournaments. Unlike other federal employees, funding for tribal institutions and individuals is often mandated by acts of Congress and/or in the mission statement of the respective agency.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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