The Trump administration transferred Indian education program operations and staff out of the Department of Education without the tribal consultation required by law, according to an amended complaint several tribal nations, including Isleta Pueblo, and Native students filed in federal district court Thursday. The allegations add to a lawsuit they filed last year accusing the administration of illegally cutting staff at the Bureau of Indian Education and the schools it operates.

Two transfer agreements signed last fall moved the day-to-day work of running dozens of programs to the Interior and Labor departments as part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to dismantle the Department of Education. More than 1,000 tribal leaders and Native educators gathered for the federal government’s only consultation session on the restructuring, held in February — more than four months after the agreements were signed, Indianz reported at the time.

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Federal law requires the Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Education, to actively consult tribes on actions affecting Indian education before they occur.

“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,” Isleta Pueblo Governor Eugene Jiron said in a press release.

The transfer, along with staffing cuts that began last year, has damaged the educational experiences of students at tribal colleges, made it difficult for the schools to keep faculty and students, and delayed funding, reads the amended complaint filed by the Native American Rights Fund.

The delayed funding allegedly includes a portion for Isleta Pueblo’s early childhood program for children with learning disabilities. The Bureau of Indian Education informed the Pueblo in July that the money was “on hold,” without an expected release date.

The plaintiffs learned in June that the agencies were starting to transfer staff out of the Department of Education and then requested consultation last month, which was denied, according to the complaint.

The nations and students originally sued in March 2025 over staffing cuts at schools including Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque.

Layoffs there seriously disrupted the campus community, student and plaintiff Kaiya Brown (Diné) told New Mexico In Depth in June 2025. Maintenance issues like power outages went unaddressed and classes were left without instructors, Brown said.

This spring, the complaint reads, Brown needed tutoring and counseling support but wasn’t able to access them because of the staffing cuts, pushing back her expected graduation date.