Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has ordered a restructuring that seeks to shift the federal role from creating curriculum and directly administering far-flung schools to providing support and funding to local leaders who would call the shots. The hope, she said, is to shore up facilities and give the schools the means to teach culturally relevant lessons and improve their academics.

That tribe-first approach is vital to turning around the schools, said William Mendoza, who is leading a White House initiative to improve education of Native Americans. “We’ve tried just about everything in education except enlist the tribes to affect their own school systems in a more positive way,” said Mr. Mendoza, who is Oglala-Sicangu Lakota and attended bureau schools as a child in South Dakota, then taught in them. “That’s the important component.”

Like about two-thirds of bureau schools, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig is operated by a local school board authorized by the tribe, known as the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Ms. Jewell’s order calls for shifting the remaining 60 or so schools to tribal oversight, and providing more efficient funding and support for the entire system. For schools that are already administered locally, the changes could lead to more resources like expanded teacher training or broadband installation.

Skepticism of Washington reformers permeates many reservations, where the federal government’s fraught history of educating Native American children has left a painful legacy. For decades, national policy sought to strip the children of their culture and language in an effort to “Westernize” them. Those efforts were disavowed long ago, but many federally run Indian schools have continued to struggle. Ms. Jewell, who visited Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig in August, said that in an effort to build trust, she listens closely but does not offer guarantees when meeting with tribal leaders.

Image Torn carpet at the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, whose facilities have been neglected for years. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

“What I told them is ‘I’m not going to promise you anything because I don’t control the budget,’ ” said Ms. Jewell, who pledged to use what she saw and heard in Minnesota to prod Congress for more funds. Historically, the reservation schools have not been a top priority for lawmakers.