 My name is Simon Tran and I'm Republica's Events Associate. Welcome to Lessons Lost, the historical shortcomings of the Bureau of Indian Education. For those new to us, Republica is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. We're expanding our coverage in the Southwest, which covers Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. Our partner, the Arizona Republic, or ACcentral.com, is the largest news organization in the state, primarily serving the area of Metro Phoenix. It is the largest local site in the USA Today network, which includes more than 200 news sites across the country. Over the past year, Republica and the Arizona Republic collaborated on Lessons Lost, a series that looked into the disparities within the Bureau of Indian Education, which serves over 46,000 students across 23 states. This series investigated the BIE's slow response during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in equipping students with computers, and is inability to meet federal and special education requirements. Even with recent conversations on improving the Bureau of Indian Education, our reporting and panelists have demonstrated the need for reform and alternative education models more than ever. For our conversation today, we're joined by four panelists. Adrian Elliott, Senior Legislative Associate at the National Indian Education Association, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Joe Garcia, head councilman of the OK Owinga Pueblo, and a former two-term president of the National Congress of American Indians. Genevieve Jackson, McKinley County Commissioner, Honey Hunter's Point Board Member, and a former superintendent who spent more than 35 years in many roles as an educator. And finally, we have Alden Woods, a reporter at the Arizona Republican Phoenix. In 2019, he joined Republica's local reporting network to examine long-standing problems in the Bureau of Indian Education. Thank you to our panel for joining today. Also, to our audience, this session is being recorded, and a link to the video will be emailed tomorrow to everyone registered. Our moderator today is ProPublica reporter Mary Hudex, who is a member of the Crow tribe and has covered Native American issues for more than a decade. Mary, thank you for being here today. Thank you, Simon. And thank you also to all of our panelists for joining us today. And what I think is actually a notable moment in the history of the US Bureau of Indian Education. As some in the audience may know, the federal government's education system for Native children has its roots in a painful period known as the Indian boarding school era. Just this week, Interior Secretary Deb Holland announced that her department will conduct an in-depth review or in investigation into the history of federal boarding school policies and the impact and trauma they've had on Native people. Much of our discussion today will actually be about the present day, BIE. It's an agency that serves some 40,000 Native youth in nearly two dozen states. But to understand the present, I do think it's important that we take a moment to know and understand the past, except possible here. So with that, Adrienne, I'm hoping you could start us off and give us maybe a broad thousand foot perspective on the origins of the BIE and what you think we should know today about its history. Sure. So I think the biggest thing to know is that whenever the United States began, the federal government entered into treaties with Native nations across the continent. And these treaties often included provisions that promised education for Native children in exchange for this land. And during the 1880s, exactly as you mentioned, the federal boarding school era really became impervious. And this consisted of federal military facilities that have been used to fight tribes, which were converted into Indian boarding schools. And they were purposefully used because they were far from reservations, family and community. And these schools became an essential component of the United States' assimilation policy. Our students arrived to overcrowded classrooms thousands of miles from home where they were subjected to a whole range of abuse. And by the time they left school, our students looked like different people. They were often no longer able to communicate in their native language and they had been stripped of their cultures. And we continue to learn the full scope of these schools. Sorry, I told myself I wouldn't tear up, but I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to highlight and honor the 751 Native children that were founded on marked graves. And the 251, or 215 children that were found buried at Kamloops Indian residential school and the hundreds and thousands more that we continue to grieve and that we know are out there. And this is why NIA supports the initiative that Donald Holland started earlier this week, the federal Indian boarding school initiative. This policy continued through the 1970s and 80s and impacted generations of Native students and families. We saw a change in the 70s when Congress passed the Indian self-determination and Education Assistance Act and later the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988. And these laws created pathways for tribes to take control of the education for their students and to exercise self-determination in Native education. Today, the Bureau of Indian Education funds 183 schools across 23 different states, and 130 of these schools are operated by tribal nations, which is an enormous shift from where we've come. We have a long way to go, but recognizing these origins is really important to understanding where we are today. Thank you. Thank you, Adrian. Yeah, so Adrian brought us to the present very, very, just was very well. This takes me to your reporting, Alden. You started to explore and step into the world of looking at the Bureau of Indian Education more than a couple years ago now, I believe. And I was curious, how did that work begin? And what was it that drew you to the work, to this reporting? Yeah, I don't think I can start to fully answer that question until I mentioned that the history that Adrian talked about. I grew up in Indiana, and that history is not taught, that history is barely mentioned. So, like a lot of people in this country, I did not know that the VAE was a thing that existed until 2017. I just moved to Arizona, and I saw a blurb, I can't remember where, about a group of students and their families who had gotten together. They were members of the Havasupai tribe in Northern Arizona, whose ancestral homelands are on the floor of and surrounding the Grand Canyon. They've gotten together and they filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the conditions of their school. And I started reading the lawsuit and started having conversations with their attorneys and with folks who were involved in that, and some of the families down there, and learned of huge systemic problems. This school, some of the allegations in that lawsuit, which has since been settled, special education programs that were not nearly equitable with what you would see in a public school down the street from where I live in Phoenix. Staffing shortages that were so severe that teachers were teaching three or four grade levels at a time. And just tons of trauma that these students were experiencing and that had not been proper, they did not have the proper resources to deal with. So, I don't know of anybody who could hear about that school and not want to know what happened there and what's going on here. And so I started having more conversations and I discovered, you know, the school is run by the federal government. Oh my gosh, nobody taught me about that. I did not know that that was a thing, unfortunately. Made it to 22 years old without knowing that that was a thing that still happened. And not just a thing that happened in the past. And so I started having conversations with folks who do know about yeah and one of the things that came up over and over again is that the problems that we were seeing and have a super elementary school were kind of extreme examples of other other issues that had been identified throughout the system for decades. And as the folks here know who have been working on this a lot longer than I have. Those stories are out there, those stories have been told a lot but they often, they often kind of follow the same path which is there are there are schools, they are not equitable. In many ways, and in many ways they're incredibly successful at infusing culture and language and tradition, but in a lot of other ways that they are, they need some help. But then the stories kind of stopped there. And so we wanted to know, why is that like what is happening here what is blocking this because there are people who are trying we know that at all levels of the system. So what is what is blocking that. And what is what needs to be done moving forward. And that's how we got here. So, yeah, you say what needs to be done moving forward. I'm actually curious I would love to bring that to Councilman Garcia. Councilman in your community in New Mexico, you have the okay wing gay community school. It's a tribally controlled school and just short of a year ago you were testifying in a congressional hearing about the needs of the schools. I'm curious. What in your view is the most pressing issue facing the IE. Well thank you for having me number one. I must say that is not one simple solution to all of the ailments that we find in the system, and the word system comes into play it's a systematic problem that has persisted over years and years and years. And if the people that are running the schools have no idea about what Indian country is about what Indian people are like what their culture tradition language and learning styles and all that is about. And yet they're thrown into the fire to try to promote education in the dominant societies way. Well that's almost a set up for failure. And so I think that's really one of the things that has happened and because of the systematic situation that we are in funding is a major major part of it. And if you if you know anything about the budgeting process now a federal budgeting process. There's a hurdle after hurdle after hurdle on how you get the funding. And so, unless the funding is is appropriate to the level of need. You'll never get it done. And that's been the situation over the past years that I've been around trying to help the education system. But I must say, we have gained a lot of bound, and the PL 100 297 school is a significant measure of how successful, not bie run school but bie funded school run by tribal government can be successful. I know several of these school that are top notch number one okay we can give for for elementary school is a is a great little school Santa Fe in the school based out of Santa Fe run by 19 tribes is a major major breakthrough on education. And so the reason for its success, right in the condition under under which it's operating that means the tribal governments are operating the Santa Fe in school, not the federal government. And so the funds are appropriate and the neither are based on the local tribes and the student that attend we have students from Alaska from Oklahoma from Montana from South Dakota North Dakota California. So the tradition and the culture and the language is a major part of that. So that's doing good. The other school that I will bring up is Cherokee school school system in Cherokee North Carolina. They're a model that I looked at back in 1995 part of 1995 they had already initiated being appeal appeal 100 297 school, Charlie control school. They were doing wonders at that time. And so when okay when get when I became governor that was one of my and this is that we're going to break away from bia. And we're going to run our own school and we'll do what we need to do. And so I think that's a big, big difference. And so why we are not able to take all of the other schools. However, many are left and put them into appeal 100 297 form. Again it goes back to the federal situation because bie is not allowing the rest of the school to go under tribal control. They've already stopped that and so it probably is related to funding as well but the major hurdles have have been addressed as today. And we're moving forward so we can't say that what bie bia used to be back then bie has improved a whole lot. But primary reason why bie even has improved is because now there's collaboration. There's consultation, there's working relationship between bie official and tribal leaders and the, the educational environment if you want to people that work in that like an IEA the partner, and many other organizations are partners and CAI. And so I think that we're making progress. But if we could get that funding level to the appropriate level, man we'd have a ball, and we've been really really good shape. But, you know, that's sort of where we are right now we're making progress. And it is still important that you have to know the past. And to appreciate what's happening and why it happened and how why it took so long. But if you know that, I think what Elton said earlier that most of our congressional people that make the laws do not know that. And so it's an important but it's a learning situation. So, you know, at NCI we created a what what I proposed long time ago that we need to create in the 101 and all congressional people must pass that test, like they passed bar exam and whatnot. They must pass that test and in the 101 in order to become a full fledged congressional person. Thank you. Yeah, thank you Joe. I think Councilman. I actually would like to ask the same question of you, Genevieve. I think Joe touched on a second ago about transitioning to the work and the start of transitioning to kind of local control and we'll get to that but I'm curious what do you feel like you need policy makers and lawmakers to know about your school and what are the biggest issues you think BIE is facing. And you're on mute. The BIA and the BIA is a little different. I'm from the boarding school era. And I would like for BIA to go away and not have anything to do with education for native children, because there are so many inaccuracies and there's similarities within the bureaucracy that we don't get the funding that we should be getting, and also that we, we also play political games against one another. I learned that too well from their angle culture, from the angle culture but having local control is wonderful. And we fought long and hard for that back in the 60s to become 297 schools and my school, Hunter's Point, is a locally controlled school and the community and the school board decides the language and the culture and what's to be taught in the schools. And with the BIA, with the BIA, it's a little different. They have to their curriculum is a little different. But within the bureaucracy itself. What I mean by dysfunctionalities is that we have, there's a tendency to within BIE as I understand it now, is that there's a lot of shuffling of people at the top. And there's a shortage of staff and a high turnover, so that no one at the, at the school levels can actually make a decision on things real simple like permission to go on a field trip. And that becomes real problematic here. It may sound like something that is hard to believe but it does happen. But with the tribal control school we can make those kind of decisions right away. And I also am a member of the Bozba which is composed of representation from 66 tribal grant and BIE schools. And so we have a mixture of problems here. We have with the BIE. Like I said, they're very bureaucratic. And with the not with the traveling control schools we have trouble support costs that allows us to make these own decisions. But if all our schools would go to travel local control. I think that would say solve some of the problems. But I see again the problems are at the top. And the top by that I mean people in Washington, who actually make the decisions within the BIE. And have a tendency not to address the issues they pass the buck from one to another. And sure things have improved, but not to the degree that we would like to see, as it affects us down here at the local level. So there's a lot of room for improvement. And we just have to keep pushing forward and keep pushing forward. And then also the congressional monies that come down has, we've never had enough funding. If you look at the Department of Defense and their schools, they get more funding for their education for those schools. Whereas in native country, and I'm talking for Malva who were under staff. There's a shortage of teachers. We don't, we don't have, we like the books and the resources. But with the COVID grants that we've received, we have been able to do some catch up right now, because but again, BIE again needs to take the lead and say, here is a plan to cover the next three years to improve broadband technology on the construction. Here is a plan to address construction costs, because right now we're competing with one another. And we shouldn't have to compete. The school that I represent, Hunter's Point, was built back in the 60s. So we have all kinds of problems within that school that we're constantly trying to fix. But then we may be traveling control, but still we have there are some ties tied to BIA and to BIE, that with that we need like father may I mother may I do this father may I, and we need to do away with all of that, and just address the shortcomings and address the curriculum and language, cultural. We need those changes to come without any interference. And if we could do that, if we could build a school within a three year timeframe, the state schools do it all the time. Here in Indian country, it takes us 10 years we have to compete against one another. And that's not fair at all the money should be there the congressional money should be there to meet the needs of the Native Americans because we were here first this is our land, and they owe it to us. Thank you. Thank you. Your point to the bureaucracy and sounds like the layers that go with seeking permission. I think it's been about seven years now since the, you know, it sounds like it's still an issue, but that there were efforts to try to streamline things. You know, Obama administration, and streamline the bureaucracy and make it easier to support schools and students, and I want to actually stick with you Genevieve, and ask from your perspective, like how if at all did that change things. Oh, very little. Like I said, everything is tied to funding. And during the Obama era, we were able to do some changes but we, we, for the past four years, we, it's been a stalemate. And I mean the people at the top. And we don't really know what the people within BIE are doing or planning. And there's a high turnover of people there, so that people are constantly shuffle around to acting status. We used to have what they call education line officers who could make decisions rapidly for schools. They had a certain region that they work in. Well, those ELO's are gone now. And now, constantly, I said there's a shuffle, and that's true. It's all across. And Navajo is so large that our problems are going to be a little different from the little Indian schools that are in the, are in, in the United States. Okay. Joe, can I ask you, Councilman Garcia can I ask you as well. And, and Adrian, like, how have in your perspective, I appreciate Genevieve's very much on your perspective, have those reform efforts. How they're succeeded. And then maybe what work is left to do. People keep talking about funding and funding is a dire need but you got to remember, or at least learn about the federal budget and process. It's the president that proposes a budget within the present proposal is the bie and the bie and all other funding for all other programs that make up the United States government, the department under the administration and whatnot. So whatever he proposed is, is based on the input given by the department themselves, and OMG, and the department of Treasury, and so whatever he proposes is really what they work by those are the guidelines. Now, if the bia, and the department of interior in this case not proposing big, big funding level. Well, the president not going to propose that, and you saw that last administration. It's great to be critical but that is total gone to, and with this, there is a different in organizational structure of the tribal side. There is the tribal interior budget council, which I'm a part of I represent the Southwest tribes that this process allows us to define the needs at all levels bie bia all programs. We promote that and we have devised ways by which we can improve that level of funding and propose it back up the chain so that the president is aware when he proposes his budget. So, just to give an update on the 23 budget, which we've already proposed. There was a 30% increase one part of present Biden had already increased for 2021 2022. There was a, about a 21% increase in funding overall, but now we're pressing 30% beyond that 21% increase, so almost 50% or more in funding to Indian country which does include bie. Now, one of the big, big issues bie is that the schools were built as the introduction built schools were built, many, many, many moons ago. And so they have not been adequately maintained because of the federal bureaucracy. So that's one of the dire needs. And so at the rate that they were proposing at the federal level for funding. It would take 170 years to fix all of the school that are in that bad or shape. And so 170 years, we will no longer be here, but the problem was to be there. That's why it's going to take a monumental step in terms of funding for school construction alone. And so there are lots of difference about, if we know the federal budget in profit process, which we now do, we now know, and I know that because they that they also put a document together that shows where the funding is going to go. And the TV group, that's the same thing and see I did the same thing. So we have a better handle on that piece of it. But nonetheless, you can't just throw money at it, you got to have plans. And if the BIE is not going to have plans, while the tribe can have plans under tribal control for what they need to do. And so, you know, it's going to take a lot more discussion, but I'll end it and give my time to Adriana. Thank you. Yeah, Adrian, what is, what is, what aren't any NIEAs priorities? And what the proposal that you have that Joe just reference. Yeah. So, I'll touch first on the question that Joe was talking about and then dive into that. But I will first just say that one of the, one of the big, biggest things that Joe kind of touched on that has been a little bit of a success over the past couple years has been the separation of the BIE and BIA budgets. Historically, the BIE has been within the BIA budget and this is very technical, so please bear with me. But what that meant on the ground was just that BIE, even at the highest levels couldn't sign off on even small contracts. The budgets were over a few thousand dollars to fix a school or to order laptops or to do whatever the BIE couldn't even sign off on it. They had to go above their heads through BIA and often through an entirely different process which frustrated everybody. And the separation of the budgets has started the process to be able to streamline that. So I do see that as a success. There's a long way to go. But that is one thing where I see a ray of sunshine. One of our biggest priorities has been infrastructure. And like Joe said, it would take 170 years to fix all of our schools at the rate that the federal government has been proposing, and the problem isn't going away. Back in 2016, the Department of Interior's own Office of Inspector General produced a report. And in that report, they said that the backlog just on maintenance in schools was 430 million, but that the real need for emergent construction. And this is just emergent construction, not construction overall, was 1.6 billion. Since that time, the deferred maintenance has more than has doubled approximately to over 725 million. And we don't have an estimate on what the emergent construction is because those numbers. We don't have an updated number from the Department of Interior. And so that has been a really big struggle that we continue to see is that our schools are not being updated at the rate that they need to be. And that's become an even bigger problem during COVID and as our schools are looking to come back from COVID, how can they reopen and make sure that their students are safe in regions that have been disproportionately impacted without facilities that just aren't in the condition that were meant to serve in this sort of environment. One of the second big priorities when it comes to the BIE is capacity. I know this was mentioned earlier on, but the GAO has a high risk list and the BIE is on that high risk list for federal programs. And one of the reasons that they cite the BIE is because the BIE does not have enough capacity to fulfill all of their programs. And currently, the BIE has 33% of positions that remain unfilled. This is over the past year has meant that a lot of our students in BIE schools, especially our special needs students and students with disabilities have not been able to access the resources that they've needed during the pandemic. And I think the perennial issue that you've heard over and over again is funding. We have our general core funding accounts within the BIE and then other other funding accounts and often that our schools will have certain funding accounts that are underfunded, for example, maintenance or operations and then have to pull from that core which is meant to fund their teachers and fund their, fund the general day to day operations of the schools. And that means that they can't keep all of their, they can't keep all the positions filled or they have to, they have to sacrifice some of the facilities repairs, and that deferred maintenance just continues to grow. So this, this is a systemic issue. And taking these little bites out of it and starting to try to address some of the some of the issues it is is is really what what we're trying to do at exactly as Councilman said at the beginning there's not one single issue or one silver bullet but those are just a few of our priorities. Yeah, robust. I want to underscore the conditions within the facilities. It's actually come up I think with each of our guests. Alden, it's stunning. It was stunning to like read those initial reports. I think he said in 2016 is stunning that it'll take so many years at the current rate to fix it. I think you could help us and our audience like understand really like from your reporting but the conditions were based on what you observed or like or read through documents. Yeah, the big one that that comes up in my conversations with tribal leaders tribal educators is internet access. I'm thinking of Miss Jackson School, where I think you've, I think you've told me before. I'm wrong that sometimes when the wind blows too hard. The internet is spotty and goes out sometimes I've walked through schools where my cell phone reception goes away in the middle of a school and that causes problems with with testing with doing lessons online with with things like that. I'm also thinking of sections of Miss Jackson School hunters point just out of window rock. The first time I visited there there were multiple sections of the building that had big signs where the doors are locked and it said warning don't come in here. We think this building might be unsafe for this part of the building might be unsafe. I mean traveling, traveling across the BI system is kind of a trip because there are some, there are some buildings the newer buildings are beautiful and and stunning and especially the ones that have had real community input and then built in the last few years. So you can tell that there's real thought and money and funding and time that's been put into them but there's others. I'm going to use Miss Jackson School as another example where that there's a leak in the dorm that just can't, can't get fixed and there's kids sleeping in there and it snows in window rock in the winter and that's a problem that just, at least the last time we had spoken and hadn't been fixed for a long time. Again, as everybody has said, these are problems that have been known for a long time I think these are the funding and the condition of the building is probably the number one thing that if, if anybody knows anything about the idea I think that's probably the number one thing that folks jump to. And there have been some, there was the Great American Outdoors Act that passed. I believe near the end of the Trump administration that's going to kick some funding into repairing and replacing some of these VAE schools, but still that the attrition is very high at this point. Yeah, Miss Jackson. Do you have any, I know your school just was mentioned, do you have more to add. Kind of a question for you but yeah on the conditions of the schools, if you do anything to know that we should know. Well, like I said, Hunter's Point was built back in the 60s, early early 60, and pating competing against one another for these for new school construction. We shouldn't have to do that. And although Adrian mentioned that there's a separation now between BIE and BIA. Still, there's a quagmire of problems there because if we want to replace the window, we have to go to BIA, we have certain construction things we have to go and get permission from BIA for. And then they have a system called a maximal system where all problems have to be entered in there. And sometimes I wonder just how long the list of problems are from all the schools are now. Let alone the rest of the United States and the smaller schools there. So, and Alden mentioned, yes, there's a, we have, we have a broadband problems there. In this COVID year, we were able to get all our students of a computer to use at home. And we also had to set up my files and hotspots and so forth but I said, you know, why can't we just erect one tower. Right around Hunter's Point that would give services to all the people in that area. And then again, some of our people or parents do not have electricity. And again, some of them don't have plumbing, indoor plumbing or water. So we what we had to do is we ordered water by the gallons and bottles, and we gave it out to the parents. And we also made sure that each child had a my fight or a hotspot. So in that same area with the public schools, they had the buses station and strategic area so students could access those lessons from their teachers. So it's a host of problems and it just underscores the need for funding across Native American communities. Even before the COVID happened, we had all these problems and now after COVID, the problems are still here. What the right the resource that we have. They came about some of them came about due to the COVID like the extra funding for for school resources. You know, we appreciate that very much but what BIE needs to come up with a strategic plan on how to address these issues. They need it they were told to do a three year plan okay that expired in March 2021 for infrastructure and for broadband technology. They just seem unable to do a plan that would address these needs on on Indian country and as long as there's not a plan in place and a list of priorities or which schools need the most funding or which schools you know, we shouldn't have to compete against one another we should take care of all these problems but we can't do it we're unable to do because the funding is not there and it goes back to Congress again it goes back to the president. How would just how friendly are they or how do they feel against with the Native Americans. So that makes a big difference and the funding that we receive and it's good to paint a nice picture, but the reality. For me at Hunter's point and coming from a very rural area. The problems are still there. I live in a hold on, and I have, I have access to electricity and reading water, but my iPad my little iPad that I use right now. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And when the wind blows a certain way. I lose all contact. I can't even get a phone call where I live and it's the same problem with the students in the rural areas so. Yeah, and we need a plan, a strategic plan from BIA or from BIA or even from Congress on how to address these problems. And that's why I said BIA BIA needs to go away, because there's just a host of issues that they are unable to address. Just give us the education, give it back to us the whole hit and caboodle where we make decisions ourselves and what we need. And let us address our own problems we can do it we can take care of ourselves. We don't need BIA and BIA interference. I do realize, yeah, in your work that you're also in addition to providing the education. You might have like a robust, like you might be offering, you might be more than just a school to a community. And I think I'd like to ask Councilman. I'd like to ask you, Councilman, what, what, um, what are your, like, how do you see your school kind of as a tribal run school or a tribal controlled school like serving your community. In the, in the pandemic, like the outside of the classroom. Well, our school is right near the administration building. And because I'm an electrical engineer by profession, I know about technology. I know about telecom I know about broadband. And what's odd is that I've been pushing broadband, the way broadband is is technology available today, like 1015 years ago, promoting in local communities all across in the land, we need to be ready for a telecom at that point, but now it's broadband. So people would not listen because I think mostly because they didn't understand the technology and the need for it in terms of broadband and computer systems and whatnot. Until oddly, the COVID is what drove people now understand. Hey, that technology has a place in in assuring that we can do much better for our children, our communities and whatnot. And so the effort came up came on. And so we're able to do a lot of that. But here is a keen point that people may miss. And that is that in our location that okay, we get the tribal government is partly responsible for having the backbones to have broadband available. The bie and the school, the funding part of it is just, it's, it's an easy thing to do a connect. Okay, and provide that service. But what I see out across any country and Navajo is part of this is that the tribal government itself is also responsible for helping to build the infrastructure. But the bie, if they're bie run facilities have also be that they need to provide the services when that infrastructure is in place. But if the infrastructure is not in place. I think it's not bie responsibility. They can be responsible up to a level, but it's really the local tribal governments and other funding sources to put that infrastructure in place. And that's what we're seeing with the American rescue plans. And I think with the job that we may be able to see a lot more that, but we're not out of the force yet. But we're headed in the right direction. And so I think we need to continue building. And while I agree with the planning part. One thing is that I don't think the bie or the bia should come up with a plan, because they come up with a plan and maybe the best plan in the world but if they can't implement it. Then what's the point. We've got to do it. The tribes and the school system, the local government. And at the national level maybe that's what we need to do a tribal leader. We need to develop the plan and use bie as a partner, not let them and put it on their hands because if they're already failing the rest of the parts. What are they going to put in place. We have to know how we have the experience we have the contact we have the partnership locally and around the, the our local places. So we can do a lot better doing and developing the plan, and then implementing them ourselves. So I think that's really the approach that it's got to be in. And part of that at NTA I at the Federal Communication Commission, I serve on the FCC tribal leader task force. And so we've identified how we can do that, but it goes then back to what keeps coming up is. Okay, we need adequate funding. There's some of it that should be our own responsibility to provide base funding if we can to help move it along and then count on the congressional and the president budget to find more funding to build and it's not going to be all built in what at one time. And that's what that strategic plan really should call for is a phase approach of how you build and you build and you build until you get to the level where you're satisfied. But here's the, here's the other offshoot. And that is that because I am technical. I'm always stressed in Indian country in Indian education. Yes, do your culture, do your language, do your tradition. You have to know that I'm a fluent speaker of my language to and through, and you got to have that for our children. But the other pieces that we've been weak in the technology what they call stem science technology, engineering and mathematics. And it's been a promotion just in the past seven years or so that we need to incorporate that part of it into our education system so that our students are well rounded, so that they can go anywhere they need to. And most of the time if we ask them to come back to help our community. Well, then we're doing our job and I think that's the bottom line but that's why I keep saying it's not one way that's going to fix this going to be a numerous ways. And all of those has to be incorporated into a comprehensive plan for Indian country and you know I'm working on that with a lot of other travel leaders as we speak. Thank you. I appreciate that. So some different perspectives here. Also some agreement on big things like funding. We have so much more to discuss that I know that we also have an audience with us, and they have perspectives and they have questions too. And so we're going to transition over to those questions and hopefully can keep wrapping in and everything we're hoping to get to here today. Awesome. Thank you Mary and thank you everyone for your answers we have just maybe 10 more mentors so left so we're going to try and get as many questions as possible to try to keep your question short. My first question is understanding that our institutions and families can control only so much and this is a question from someone who's a Native American. What can travel governments Department of Interior BIA BIA combined to help promote infrastructure to meet more than a minimum standard and bring a standard that will help students of all ages advance academically. And anyone can take this, but just keep your answer short. And then which kind of standard you're talking about you're talking about educational level educational standards which are set by Department of Education, the Department of Ed requirements and legislative requirements. We need to be at the table, and the tribes need to be at the table with bie so that it's not bie blindly accepting requirements set forth by a non Indian entity that is set up for public school, and not necessarily for tribal school. But if it's education, some kind of education got to be comprehensive enough so that it covers all ground at the all levels at the right level, no matter who that person is. And so, if we're already liking you see we have to come up to speed, and they've got to be special effort to bring that up to that level. So it'll take a lot of effort to get us that level. And once we're at that point, then it can be a standard throughout, and we can meet those standards and it's not going to be a big issue but the standard has to include our perspective. Our tradition, our culture, our language, our history, and the predicament that we've been in because of the education system in this country, what, what a secondary Holland brought up about the boarding school era. You know, we have to accept that we can we can't keep denying that it happened. And so once we accept that and report out and more people know about it. Maybe that's a shining light at the end of the town. Thank you. Thank you now and I so I know you want to talk a little bit more for that I also had a question. So feel free to answer that but Adrian and all of that I had a question for you about new policy efforts being pursued at the federal level people are talking about the current administration what is changing what isn't what are the plans to address this situation. I wanted to add just add something and then I can hand that over to Adrian and answer the work that they're doing on the federal level but maybe not traditional infrastructure. I think it's worth highlighting some of the efforts that tribal governments have been making to build their own systems within the system of be funded schools. The effort that Choctaw tribal schools has been doing that I know Councilman Garcia mentioned the Cherokee schools out in New Mexico, the North Carolina. Other school systems that have been established and have been running and then kind of held up as models for a long time and then we are also seeing the Navajo Nation working on a similar proposal of kind of building a Navajo school system of the BEI schools and kind of assuming some more of the administrative responsibilities we saw just in the last couple of years to Hopi tribe took a grant from the Department of the Interior and finally took control of all of this schools on the Hopi reservation and brought those all under tribal control and then hooked them together into one unified school system so we are seeing there is a real effort that we're seeing now it feels like there's momentum building toward tribes kind of finding a way inside of the system to build their own system and then assume more responsibilities on it that way and more control of how education happens on their land and then of course in in smaller smaller nations that might only have one or two be a schools like that's kind of pre existing as is so when that school converts that whole system is kind of there already but that feels like momentum that is happening right now. Well, if I may interrupt, I know it's happening in North and South Dakota too, they've got some good tribal schools there, tribal control schools and so the momentum is at all different levels and so if you want some sightseeing that you all might want to do when it opens back up, you got to go visit the North and South Dakota schools because they're doing great wonders up there too and it's like everybody else great wonders in the midst of low funding inadequate staffing and all that we're still doing well so that's the promise that we have in Indian country doing it, not the BIE. I also would like to say this is Genevieve. Thank you, Alden, for bringing up those points and to the gentlemen here from Okei Wenge. Okay, Wenge. Again, I keep going back to the issue of the larger tribes versus the small tribes. It's so much easier for small tribes to convert to 297 and take care of some of the systemic issues or address them. In Navajo, where we are in four states, and we have 66 grant travel and BIE schools within Navajo, it's going to take longer time or it's going to take more work for us, and we are making baby steps, little baby steps. I'm not saying everything is at a standstill. We are making baby steps because we have schools that excel, but again, we are so huge that sometimes we have a tendency to trip ourselves in the bureaucracy that we have. Yes, the tribal government has a part to play in the education of its students. And we have public schools who are on Navajo, we have parochial schools on Navajo. So you have that whole realm of schools. Some are with Arizona standards, some have New Mexico standards and then the tribal schools have their own standards and Navajo standards and so forth. We have to come together and look at all these standards and find out what works best for us as a Navajo nation. And we haven't arrived at that point yet because maybe because of the largeness of our nation. I don't know, but we do have schools that excel, but there are few, and some are in Arizona and some are in New Mexico. What I said a while ago was that BIE was mandated by Congress to make a plan to address the broadband issues. They were to come up with a three-year plan. They didn't do it. So we need to be at that table when they decide to get together and address these issues. The Native Americans need to take the lead and how to address the educational system within their schools. Thanks. Thank you, June. We'll close with you. So if you wanted to talk about the policy efforts being pursued, but then also thinking about kind of talking about infrastructure, right, people also talk about the Department of Interior as well, right, and kind of how there was maybe this management or kind of, you know, there was resources, kind of, you know, there was challenges with that. Can you tell us about what you think, you know, the work that you're doing needs to be pursued and the things that need to be specifically addressed? Sorry, I forgot to unmute myself. Yeah, so when it comes to infrastructure, I think it was Genevieve mentioned earlier today that despite the separation of BIE and BIA budgets, the infrastructure for BIE and construction continues to be within BIA. And so a lot for the construction of our schools and all of these issues continue to lie within BIA, which can create a lot of this additional channels of communication and additional levels of bureaucracy, as you can imagine, for many of our schools, right? And it has created some, the bureaucracy of it has created some systems where some of our schools have been built and are beautiful with a great deal of tribal consultation. Others have been built in areas that didn't have as much consultation and, for example, the buses didn't fit in the garage or the, there were light switches that were built in the desert and Sam got in and now the light switches don't work. And so they just weren't built for the environment that they were in and their new building. It is beautiful, but it wasn't built with the consultation of local tribal folks and therefore it's just not up to the standards that it could have otherwise been. And it's not serving our students in the way that it could have. So I think that that's, that's one big issue when it comes to infrastructure that we haven't necessarily discussed that needs to be addressed as we talk about the new traditional funding when it comes to infrastructure as well. I think to another big issue when it comes to broadband is, again, the layers of bureaucracy that come in. There was a school to house day school, because of the type of school that they were. They tried to get broadband through their local provider which would have been $170 a month. Instead, because it was, they were chartered through the federal government, or they had to go through a federal contract, which required multiple different contracts for this broadband agreement. They now have to pay $1,600 a month for their broadband, which is so different. And so they, these are, these are small, these are little issues that create really big challenges, right? One other big thing that NIEA has been working on when it comes to capacity building is building pathways for teachers into Native communities. And that's really bringing our Native teachers home and making sure that our students have teachers who look like them, who understand them in the classroom. And then also teachers who maybe aren't Native, but are really passionate about making sure that Native students have a great education, making sure that they have the professional development that they need to be fully serving our students. And so we, we have been working with folks on the Hill and multiple pieces of legislation for that. And then the, the last thing that I'll mention is Native language. We've seen, we saw the reauthorization of the Esther Martinez, the Esther Martinez reauthorization a couple years ago. But we continue to need progress in this, this area. COVID hit our communities really hard and especially our elders, who for many of us are our knowledge keepers and our language keepers. There have been stats that many who are on this call will probably know that there are 250 some odd native languages here in the US, but if there is an urgent action taken by 2050, there will only be about 50 native languages. And so, making sure that our students and especially our younger students in our early childhood education in our head starts have access to teachers into native language programs is another critical component of ensuring that our students have the resources that they need. Thank you so much, Adrian. And I just want to say thank you so much to everyone on this call. That's our time today. We're going to run a little bit long but that's okay because I think that this is a really important conversation. I just want to say it was an honor to produce this event. I just want to thank all our panelists, Adrian Elliott, Joe Garcia, Genevieve Jackson, and all of the woods and for this are our amazing moderator, Mary, he that's who jumped into this and just an amazing job. Thank you everyone to our audience for joining us today for your questions as well. Thank you for the areas on earth. I got a question. Yes, there were there were some questions in the chat box and if you would forward them to us and we can answer them and send them back to you. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, yes. This event has been recorded so you'll receive an email tomorrow with the full video for everyone who registered. But thank you so much again and have a good night.