government shutdown tribal colleges funding cuts.

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 before the shutdown was welcome news, but college leaders remain uneasy about the government’s financial commitments. Those federal dollars are part of some of the country’s oldest legal obligations. Tribal college and university presidents and Native education advocates worry they could be further eroded and the passage of Indigenous knowledge they ensure will be threatened.