Holdings signs that read “My education is not your budget cut” and “Culture erasure is not progress,” about three dozen people marched Friday morning down Massachusetts Street to South Park in protest of recent firings at Haskell Indian Nations University.
A speaker chanted call-and-response words such as “Honor,” through a bullhorn, and marchers responded, “Treaties.”
Drivers showed their support with honks and waves as the crowd gathered on the east side of Mass Street. Indigenous women responded with enthusiastic li lis.
Friday’s protest in downtown Lawrence marked the second for Haskell students and their supporters in five days. Organizers also rallied Monday at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. They’re pushing back against the Trump administration’s order to fire 35 Haskell probationary employees on Feb. 14.
The impact of the firings has been significant, protesters said.
Robert Hicks Jr., Pyramid Lake Paiute, stood in the crowd Friday holding a thick, heavy book titled “Indian Treaties 1778-1883.” A Haskell alum, Hicks lost his job as media communications instructor. He taught five classes. Hicks started as an adjunct instructor at Haskell in 2021 and later sought what he thought would be a more permanent faculty position. Hicks said he was six months away from the end of probationary status.
“Some of us had weeks left,” Hicks said. “It’s crazy.”
Hicks said losing his job had left him feeling bad, but he was even more disheartened to leave behind a long term digitization project he’d been focusing on in the studio at Tommaney Library.
Hicks said he and his colleagues also were working on the development of new classes and four-year certificates around media, culture and communications when his work abruptly ended.
“The students are the future, and I gotta support them any way I can,” Hicks said. “That’s why I also brought this book, too, the treaties book.”
Hicks said the protest Friday was a response to the federal government violating its treaty and trust obligations, and the students were leading a march to start that narrative.
“It’s all tied together because a defunding of education is a nonrecognition of tribal treaties,” Hicks said.
Haskell’s students have faced a plethora of unknowns since the firings. They lost seven of their teachers — as well as other campus mentors — midsemester, and without notice.
De’Ara Dosela, White Mountain Apache, said the goal of the protests was to return Haskell employees to their jobs.
“We want our Haskell family back,” said Dosela, a senior in American Indian Studies. “We really do love them. Some of them are the reason some of us are still alive today. Some of them are the reason why we’ve become very successful.”
Julia White Bull, Standing Rock Sioux, said she was attending the protest Friday to show support for her former students. White Bull, a Haskell alum, lost her job as a student success coach. She worked as an adviser, mostly to freshmen, but also supported various students through mentorships, seminar and other programs.
White Bull said she originally started her job in 2022, but an administrative barrier forced her out for six months. She returned in October and had just received an exemplary performance review on Feb. 10. She said she’d also met the qualifications for a raise.
Four days later, she was fired. A subsequent letter to White Bull wrongly attributed her dismissal to performance.
“We’re all confused,” White Bull said. “We’re all still devastated, still heartbroken, all of that.”
White Bull said Haskell’s Student Success Center had essentially been disbanded since her and a co-worker’s dismissals. The remaining employees, she said, had taken on responsibilities outside the center.
White Bull looked south down Mass Street at her former students and expressed pride in their actions. She said she wouldn’t give up returning to what she considers her “dream job.”
“I miss seeing them every day,” she said. “I want my job back.”
Jacob Nelson, Navajo, said he had joined the protest to show his support for Haskell students and the teachers they lost. The sophomore in American Indian Studies said the firings were “just not right” and were proof “the government doesn’t care of who and all works for them. They can do whatever they want.”
Tyler Moore, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a senior at Haskell and current Haskell Brave. He’s helped organize the protests.
“Haskell’s been here since 1884. We just celebrated our 140th anniversary,” Moore said. “And I think you can tell with the community coming together now with this strength and courage, we’re gonna be here for another 140.”
The Haskell Board of Regents has called on the federal government to fulfill its legal obligations to tribal nations and reverse the firings. And Haskell supporters have rallied to provide support for the university and those who’ve lost their jobs.
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
More coverage — Haskell Indian Nations University:
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