Haskell, a boarding school known for its harsh conditions and stern discipline, is now the Haskell Indian Nations University. It is a federal facility and the only university of its kind. Operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, it is the Harvard of Native American education — and, according to a recently released investigative report, a campus that fails to act on reports of sexual abuse, lacks institutional control to prevent theft and other abuses, and is unresponsive to student complaints.
“The question is what the hell is going on at BIE,” Jeff Ruch, a director at the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told me. “From what I can tell, they’ve invested far more energy in trying to hide the report than acting on it.”