For Indian Country, federal cuts decimate core tribal programs
President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and government spending have reverberated across Indian Country, leaving tribes with deep uncertainty about their health clinics, schools, police agencies and wildfire crews.
Native officials say the cuts could hit a vast array of core public services in tribal communities — even though the federal government is legally required to provide those services.
“These are real jobs that our society depends on. These are cops, nurses in clinics, people who manage our forests and fisheries,” said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state and a longtime leader on Native sovereignty issues.
“You can’t just come in with a chainsaw and slash everything and think you can get away with undermining this [responsibility].”
Allen, like many tribal leaders, flew to Washington, D.C., last week to lobby federal officials to change course. Tribal experts note that the cuts will be felt far beyond reservation boundaries.
“This is going to destroy whole regional economies in rural areas around the country,” said Matthew Fletcher, an Indian law professor at the University of Michigan and a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
https://stateline.org/2025/03/04/for-indian-country-federal-cuts-decimate-core-tribal-programs/
= new reply since forum marked as read
