Madeline de Figueiredo
The Daily Yonder
The Navajo Nation Council is considering legislation that would permanently increase the tribe’s annual investment in students and tribal colleges to $30 million annually, marking a significant jump from the current $12.4 million total allocation.
“This legislation needs to be forward funded and initiates a long-term investment into our tribal institutions and students,” said Delegate Dr. Andy Nez, who sponsored the legislation, in a statement. “We are moving beyond limited five or ten-year grants to a consistent, annual allocation. This ensures funds go directly to the institutions and scholarship office without delay.”
If passed, beginning in 2027, the legislation would provide $10 million each year to Diné College, Navajo Technical University (NTU), and the Office of Navajo Nation Scholarship and Financial Assistance (ONNSFA), respectively.
Unlike federal funding, which can come with narrow restrictions on how monies can be used, this investment would be governed by the Navajo Nation, allowing funds to directly fulfill the critical needs articulated by educational leaders, like infrastructure and housing. The Navajo funds supplement, not replace, the federal government’s treaty obligations to support Native education.
Addressing urgent needs
Samantha Antone, the NTU Student Senate President, said the funding provided in the proposed legislation is essential to addressing critical needs like student housing, academic facilities, and support services. She said that these investments would benefit not just the university, but the broader community as well.
“NTU provides consistent academic advising, tutoring, transportation from various points, childcare, health and wellness support, internships, and travel opportunities,” Antone wrote in a public letter to the Navajo Nation Council. “There are many more important services that the NTU provides to students. These opportunities are supported by Navajo Nation funding.”
Many of the ongoing needs Antone articulated,“includ(ing) student housing, academic buildings, a modern cafeteria, and continuing to improve student support services programs,” are not directly supported by federal funds.
Ahniwake Rose, President and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), a national advocacy organization representing TCUs, said that federal funding is often narrowly restricted, failing to cover many of the most pressing needs tribal colleges face.
“We’re really prohibited in the way that we can use our (federal) dollars,” Rose told the Daily Yonder. “There seems to be a constant pushback around the federal government allowing construction for tribal colleges.”
The federal government’s limitations on construction has meant that the basic maintenance and operations of TCUs often goes underfunded, or sometimes unfunded.
“One of our TCUs was recently flooded, and they probably have $200,000 or $300,000 in maintenance needs just to repair the flooding damage, and we are not provided the dollars to be able to make those updates. So they have sections of their school now that are closed down because they’re unsafe, because they can’t get the dollars for maintenance,” Rose said.
Additional funds from the Navajo Nation could offer Diné College and NTU the latitude to fulfill infrastructure-based needs, like those stated by Antone.
In a statement to the Navajo Nation Council, NTU president Dr. Elmer Guy said that over the past 15 years, student enrollment at NTU has steadily grown, recently peaking at over 4,000 students. To meet this rising demand, NTU has expanded its academic offerings to include 60 degree and certificate programs, including doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees, and continues to develop new modes of access, such as online learning and micro-credentialing programs aligned with workforce needs. Funding is needed to support both the programmatic expansion of these offerings as well as the physical space to house new degree programs, faculty, and students.
“With the development of additional academic programs, notably graduate degrees and online programs, the need for funding for capital and infrastructure improvement is vital,” Guy said.
NTU currently needs $156.5 million to fund key capital projects, including a $25 million nursing facility, $75 million for student housing, and new faculty housing and academic buildings in Crownpoint and Chinle.
Rising construction costs, partly due to recent steel tariffs, have widened funding gaps for these projects, which also require major investments in water, electricity, and IT infrastructure. NTU officials said the funding is critical to supporting growing student enrollment, expanding academic programs, and providing safe, modern facilities.
“TCUs need to receive the funding that they need to do their job, and there should be as little barriers as possible put in place for them to be able to use those dollars at their discretion,” Rose said. “When they have basic operation dollars through general operating grants, they should be able to utilize those dollars in the way that their institutions need them to be put to use.”
“NTU’s growth and success are attributed to the strong and unwavering support of the Navajo Nation,” Guy said. “Unlike many other TCUs, the Navajo Nation financially supports its TCUs as well as encourages the Navajo students to choose NTU and DC as their first choice in pursuing a college degree.”
Boosting financial accessibility
ONNSFA President Rose Graham has also been an outspoken advocate for this legislation, noting that it could help make higher education accessible to more Navajo students. Currently, the Navajo Nation allocated $3.5 million to ONNSFA, but the proposed legislation would boost that figure to $10 million. The proposal also introduces news measures to support Diné language programs and K-12 education pipelines.
Graham said Navajo students face significant financial barriers due to long-standing systemic inequities. Although the number of applications ONNSFA received increased by 32% from 2014 to 2024, funding has remained constant. About half of ONNSFA applicants are denied support each year. Graham said expanding financial aid is key to helping students avoid burdensome loan debt and long-term economic hardship as they pursue vocational, undergraduate, or graduate degrees.
“From 2007 to 2025 the Navajo Nation’s investment in higher education through the Higher Education Grant Act resulted in 16,701 students, with about 11,000 in undergrads and 5,300 in graduate students, that received awards to help them through their academic goals,” Graham told the Daily Yonder.
“Increasing the annual allocation from $3.5 to $10 million would be of great benefit to our students, especially because federal funds are not definite,” Graham said. “There possibly might be some changes to federal student aid through Pell Grants and our own funding through the Bureau of Indian Education. The current administration has completely eliminated our budget, but Congress is working on replenishing those funds.”
In the Trump administration’s proposed Bureau of Indian Education budget, funding for TCUs was cut by nearly 90 percent. But in the appropriations process, both the House and the Senate have funded TCUs to at least the same level as the previous year.
For students, these funds can be crucial for accessing higher education.
“As a current graduate student who depends on financial aid, I know how essential these funds are to the success and well-being of our people. Less than half of ONNSFA applicants currently receive scholarships. This must change,” said Gwendolyn Smith, a master’s student at New Mexico Highlands University, in a statement to the council. “This legislation is a powerful investment in the minds, spirits, and futures of our Diné people.”
The legislation went before the Navajo Nation Council in August. But the bill was referred to a committee for a work session before the Council considers it again this fall.
Navajo Nation funding supplements, not replaces, federal trust and treaty obligations
Rose said that the Navajo Nation’s funding is not designed to replace the federal dollars that are due to the tribe through treaties and trusts for tribal education.
“These dollars do not supplant. They supplement already existing vast resources that are needed,” Rose said. “Tribal colleges have been woefully underfunded since the beginning.”
“Our treaties directly estate education for our tribal students, and that’s elementary and post secondary education, and so it does not abrogate the responsibility of the federal government to provide that education,” Rose said.
Tribal colleges play a critical role in Native communities, yet they face steep funding challenges due to systemic limits on tribal economic development. Unlike local governments, tribal nations can’t levy bonds to fund schools, leaving them with fewer revenue options. Despite this, tribes like the Navajo Nation are making bold investments in higher education to preserve Diné culture, support Navajo language revitalization, and help students gain the skills needed to serve their communities.
Still, tribal colleges remain severely underfunded, with 70–80 percent of their budgets dependent on federal dollars and little support from states or tribal governments.
Federal law, through the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978, promised tribal colleges $8,000 per student with annual increases for inflation, an amount that should exceed $12,000 per student today, but that full funding has never been appropriated. For the 2025-2026 academic year, the TCU institutions will receive $10,668 per Native American student.
Rose said that unlike other post-secondary institutions, tribal colleges receive minimal state funding, keep tuition low to avoid student debt, and rely heavily on federal support, all while lacking wealthy alumni, endowments, and adequate state reimbursement—despite the fact that many well-funded universities built their wealth on lands taken from Indigenous communities.
“We have students that go to school with exposed wiring. We have incredibly unsafe conditions based on construction needs. Some of our TCUs, they’re in buildings from when there were forts created,” Rose said. “Not one of our treaties has ever been fulfilled…Not one of our treaties has ever been honored….It’s heartbreaking.”