When Indian leaders traveled to Washington last week, the plan was to fight for money, for funds that are proposed to be cut out of the budget and for additional money that is needed.

"Then we got hit with a bombshell," said Tex Hall, Chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation and President of the National Congress of American Indians.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs budget is already facing a $52 million cut for fiscal year 2005. But while in Washington, Hall and others found out that preliminary numbers for the fiscal year 2006 budget show an $80 million cut.

The cuts are across the board. And they also include about $3 million in funding for United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. The funding has been eliminated for the third year in a row. The fiscal year 2005 budget begins Oct. 1.

Funding for the college has been reinstated by Congress the past two years, and now it appears the fight will continue for another two if the FY2006 budget remains as is.

UTTC President David Gipp said the fight for FY2005 funding is in the early stages. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., pressed Interior Secretary Gale Norton late last week as to why cuts were made to Indian education programs. He said he'd use his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee to restore the UTTC funds.

Dorgan cited that President Bush's proposed FY2005 budget would increase funding by $10.5 million for a program to manage wild horses and burros, yet at the same time would cut by 44 percent funds for replacing deteriorating elementary schools on Indian reservations.

"Those priorities make no sense at all," Dorgan said. "We're talking about our kids."

And that's the fight Indian leaders plan to bring to Washington in mid-April. Hall said a letter signed by 20 tribal leaders was sent to President Bush regarding the budget cuts.

"We just don't think they understand," Hall said Saturday morning during a board meeting break at UTTC. "It doesn't give anyone hope out here that they care."

The UTTC board of directors passed a resolution Saturday opposing the $80 million in proposed cuts for the FY2006 budget, to submit a counter proposal to BIA, and to supply justification and supporting materials to the BIA and the congressional delegation.

Hall said the battle now is over a combined $132 million in cuts - $52 million scheduled for FY2005 and the $80 million proposed for FY2006. The cuts, Hall said, will affect everything, from social services to law enforcement, education to health services. There are only 10 BIA drug agents in the country, Hall said, and none in North Dakota.

"We have to turn this around," Hall said. "I'm asking them for a tour, to leave the Beltway and come out and see what's happening. These are human rights issues. The priorities have to be the people."

(Reach reporter Mark Hanson at 250-8264 or mark.hanson@bismarcktribune.com.)