-We move now to higher education and the funding available for Nevada's Native American students.

A recent report from Guinn Center, a nonpartisan policy think tank, finds financial sustainability is a key concern for the future of the Native American fee waiver.

Established in 2021 and expanded in 2023, participation in the program has surged, leaving institutions in Nevada's System of Higher Education, also known as NSHE, to absorb millions of dollars in foregone revenue.

The Guinn Center report recommends stable, dedicated state funding to support the program.

And to learn more about its impact, we sat down with Tammi Tiger, Founding Director of Tribal Education at UNLV's College of Hospitality and a member of the report's steering committee; along with UNLV student Maya Nutumya.

-I want to start with you, Maya.

You are in your third year at UNLV.

What has your experience with the Native American fee waiver been like?

(Maya Nutumya) Honestly, it was a little bit of a struggle at first.

But since this is my third year, it hasn't been really much of a worry.

It's been a huge financial relief, and I plan on using it for many years to come.

-What would life have been like for you had you not had access to that waiver?

-Honestly, I don't think I would be at UNLV if it wasn't for the fee waiver.

I would have probably planned to go to community college and just probably stop there.

I wouldn't be able to have made these connections, honestly, without it.

So, yeah.

-Tammi, how does Maya's experience compare with what was presented in the Guinn Center report on this fee?

(Tammi Tiger) Maya's experience is really a success story.

I think what we wanted the report to show is the qualitative perspectives of all the students that are benefiting from the fee waiver.

And since it, since the fee waiver came about in 2021, of course it took some time for the institutions to adapt and be ready and develop systems to support the students.

But we really relied on the anti-network, like Maya's describing, to make sure that our students were aware and help them navigate the system.

But she definitely, having, being able to recruit up to Northern Nevada from UNLV is always challenging.

And so I happened to be at a summer camp up north recruiting with the Tribal Education Initiative, and that's how it began.

-And were you recruiting on behalf of UNLV?

-Yes.

-Okay.

What systems does UNLV have in place that support this waiver?

What do you think UNLV is doing well?

-UNLV has put the fee waiver on the web page under financial aid.

When you start your application process, you can drop down and select your tribe, which is supposed to automatically trigger the next step to upload your NSHE fee waiver form to be reviewed and see that you're eligible for the fee waiver.

-Okay.

-So they've embedded it into the application system.

-And that is not the case across the board, because this is being utilized at UNR, some of the community colleges as well?

What's going on at other places?

-From what I understand, it's very inconsistent all across the NSHE system.

And that's been part of the challenges that our students are facing.

Like Maya said, some of them will start at maybe Great Basin or Community College, CSN, and then transfer in, or sometimes they don't even know about it, for one, until someone tells them who may not be part of the institution.

And then it's just like, who's the right person to talk to?

Are the people on the institution side talking to each other?

Do they have the basic knowledge of, you know, what determines a tribal citizen or descendant has even been a huge factor in helping our students to navigate the system.

-From the report, several students were interviewed.

And the feedback included how this waiver changed their lives, their families' trajectory, and truly gave them hope for a future they did not previously have.

Do you relate to that?

And if so, how?

-Oh, yes, 100%.

I didn't realize how-- Like, I knew college was expensive, but seeing my amount due, I didn't realize how expensive it would be, like seeing it firsthand.

So definitely the fee waiver, huge relief.

Like, I plan on taking summer classes, too, but I heard summer classes were more expensive, more costly.

And luckily the fee waiver covers those as well.

And I also, if I ever go for my master's, I'm definitely going to keep using it.

So it's I don't have to worry about paying any, like, the expensive fees.

Like going to the gym, I go.

And then if I needed to see like a dentist, that's covered too.

So it's definitely helped me health-wise, financial-wise, and also mentally too.

-Does the fee waiver include housing?

-Unfortunately, it does not.

I have to get more, like, more scholarships for those.

But it would be nice if it could cover housing.

-Well, I imagine that's a big impediment.

-Mm-hmm.

-We've had students from the first year that it came into play that had to go back home because, like Maya mentioned, there are so many other costs associated with going to college, especially if you're going away from college, away from home.

Not a lot of tribal citizens live close enough to be, you know, commuter students like we have here in Las Vegas.

There are tribes all the way at the borders of all across the state, and so they have to move onto campus.

I mean, even here in Moapa, that's an hour drive, right?

-Right.

-So there's really probably, except for just a handful of tribes that are close enough to commute back and forth, so having that additional need of housing expenses, meals, everything that comes with going away to college and living on your own is another financial burden on the family.

-Speaking of costs, this is costly for the state and for the institutions that are involved.

It has developed over the years.

It started in 2021-2022.

And NSHE gets a certain amount of money from the state each year, about $450,000.

When there were ARPA funds, NSHE got a lot more.

But in its current form, the universities and community colleges that are taking part in this are operating at a loss.

They are paying for this waiver themselves.

2025-2026 school year, foregone revenue by the institutions involve over $4 million.

How does this continue, Tammi?

How can this be sustained?

-Well, there definitely-- That definitely needs to be a conversation between NSHE and the tribes and the State and the community and how we fund and what are the priorities for education, considering that that $4 million represents nearly 1,000 students and over a 500% increase since it was enacted.

And so you're uplifting not only that student, their family, the entire tribal community.

And the fact of the matter is that the system of education that we, that we have was based on land grant.

It was based on unceded lands.

There are no treaties giving up land for the institutions that they were built.

The Morrill Act was passed in the 1800s, and again-- in the late 1800s to take land from the tribes that were living here and create this higher education system that is all across the country.

And so when you look at tribes like mine that treatied for the lands to move--and there were different promises made with that--here in Nevada, there were no treaties to give up their lands; their lands were unceded.

And so the tribes essentially lost the lands that these institutions are built on.

And what is the valuation of that land today?

How has the state benefited from that land today if we think about numbers?

Those tribes were removed, displaced, put in rural areas where they really had almost no access to education or jobs, and so this comes as a matter of maybe more reparations or what's owed, what's owed to the tribal people of these lands?

-There's an excerpt from that Guinn Center report that said some students reflected on misconceptions about the waiver itself, such as outsiders framing it as a free handout.

One participant stressed it would be nice if people understood more of the history of why Native people would be getting this.

There's a whole history of why this is even on the table.

Tammi, you just did a wonderful job explaining that.

Is there anything that you want to add, Maya?

-Some reservations I've seen, they're just in the middle of nowhere, so that increases like the poverty rates, especially in like rural areas in Nevada.

So some kids just really can't afford to go to college.

And with this fee waiver, it's like a huge help to them.

It like gives them a chance to like get educated, get a career, and start a life.

-There were efforts last legislative session to limit who could qualify for this, and that could have included you, Tammi.

You are also utilizing this fee waiver for your PhD.

-Yes.

-What are you doing?

What are you pursuing?

And why is that so significant in terms of representation?

-Well, I am studying.

I am one of the first Native students in the College of Hospitality, studying Tribal Economic Development and Gaming and Hospitality and Tourism Industry.

Ashley Hemmers with Fort Mojave Tribe, we both decided to join in and do this together.

So that means we're leading research in an area that has almost no Native-authored research from our perspectives.

And that's what we're seeing in a lot of the locals who are using the fee waivers; they're going back not only to finish their undergraduate degree, but to get a master's degree to be able to advance their careers, to be able to contribute back to this community that I've lived in for 40 years now.

You know, I'm a product of displacement and relocation, where I don't have access to the services that my tribe would normally offer someone that lived there because our families were relocated to urban areas.

And so-- And we're often the least represented.

So I think it's such a monumental impact for not only me, but my family, my tribe, and what I can give back to the tribal gaming industry.

I think of-- we think of things in that perspective.

We think of like very holistically of how education is something that was promised to our people.

Education is something that you can't take away from us once we have it.

We represent entire communities.

-Tammi Tiger and Maya Nutumya, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-The Guinn Center says a grant from the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation made their policy report possible.

The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is also a supporter of Nevada Week.