The Institute of American Indian Arts is facing the loss of all its federal funding – about $13 million – as outlined in President Trump’s budget proposal. A student and an alumn talked with KUNM about what that could mean.
Chris Hoshnic (Diné) is a current poetry candidate in his second year at IAIA’s creative writing program.
Students meet in-person twice a year in the winter and the summer for intensive workshops and readings. And during the fall and spring, they work remotely with a mentor to develop a creative manuscript.
Hoshnic says the program is unique because it’s Indigenous-centered and provides mentors who are Indigenous writers, poets, and screenwriters.
“I can choose to do a full blown research on a Navajo poet, if I wanted to, and the archives at IAIA has really done a lot for me and where I'm going and looking back and seeing where I came from, and that's really nice to have that,” he said. “I don't think other institutions really get to have that.”
He said tribal colleges like IAIA provide a level of trust for Indigenous students in their education.
“I think it's important to note that the people attending these schools are predominantly coming right from the reservation, and they're trusting an institution with a lot,” he said.
Hoshnic left his own reservation in Sweetwater, Arizona to attend Arizona State University in Phoenix.
“I felt like I had to fight my way to create community in my undergrad program,” he said. “But at IAIA, once I entered it, I felt like I didn't have to prove myself, or I had to work harder than everybody else.”
He heard about the funding threats and says right now it’s a lot of waiting and watching.
“Our director is really adamant on moving forward, as if nothing's really changed, just going about our academic studies as normal, but obviously there's that undercurrent of what's going to happen,” he said.
The uncertainty scares him because he likes the control he has over his education and scholarship.
“Because I can't take what I've been practicing over the last year to another institution or another program and do it there, because they have their ways of doing it, and for me, that's scary because it smothers my practice as an artist and my voice as an artist,” he said.
Hoshnic admires many IAIA grads for their academic achievements, but also their community work, such as Navajo Poet Laureate Jake Skeets.
“To be a poet laureate of the Navajo Nation, I think that's a huge deal, because you're advocating for your people, and you're advocating for arts within your community. So, I mean the MFA is doing much more work than just writing,” he said. “They're creating spaces that wouldn't have existed if they never attended IAIA.”
He’s hopeful the school will continue.
“I think that this institution is way too important and way too integrated into the culture of America to not exist,” he said.
Shaina Nez (Navajo) is a writer who went to school at IAIA from 2018-2020 for creative nonfiction.
“I really didn't look at other institutions, just because I didn't see, you know, a reflection of who I could possibly be or what I could bring to the table of that program,” she said. “So IAIA does stand on its own.”
Nez taught at Diné College and now teaches at Fort Lewis College. She said defunding would be a blow because Indigenous peoples' creative mediums are their livelihood.
“Our art is a reflection of who we are, and that's also what we carry. So I think as far as it being defunded, if it ever went to that extent, I think it would impact a lot of Native communities that are still trying to sustain their cultural arts and some of the traditions, morals and values that go with it,” she said.
She said Native leaders at tribal colleges need to look back at the foundation of how these institutions came to be, why they were created, and put Native students at the center of that.
“I look at other institutions, even the one that I formally taught for and the reflections not there. There's a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said.
Nez recently got her doctorate in Justice Studies from Arizona State University and offers advice for Indigenous students looking to secondary programs during this time of uncertainty.
“Knowledge is power,” she said. “This is exactly why they're trying to defund. This is exactly why they don't want minoritized peoples to be educated. Educated enough to understand that this system is still very flawed.”
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
