Several tribes and a handful of Native American students sued the Trump administration after major staff reductions at the Bureau of Indian Education and the two higher ed institutions under its auspices, Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico, The New York Times reported.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, says personnel cuts spurred by the Department of Government Efficiency affected about a quarter of staff at the two institutions serving Native American students.

At Haskell, the cuts led to 34 courses without instructors, canceled athletic activities, delayed financial aid payments, dining halls struggling to properly feed students and cleanliness issues on campus, like overflowing garbage cans, according to the 54-page complaint. Southwestern Indian Polytechnic struggled to respond to power outages and a burst water line because of a lack of maintenance staff and put maintenance projects on hold, including brown-colored water in one of the dorms. The suit also asserts that the Bureau of Indian Education, which suffered from layoffs as well, was already understaffed, harming the schools it oversees.

The plaintiffs include the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes, as well as students from both higher ed institutions run by the Bureau of Indian Education.

They seek a reversal of the layoffs, arguing that the defendants were required under federal law to consult with the tribes before cutting staff.

“Because of the failure to consult, the Tribal Nations have suffered the loss
of their statutory consultation rights and have suffered other harms, including harms to their Tribes, their schools, their students and parents, and their education,” the complaint says.