In a survey, 60% of Tribes responded they experienced federal grant freezes
As the Trump administration has halted federal grants and fired a number of government employees, Tribes throughout the U.S. have faced confusion and a loss of important wildlife conservation and management resources.
“Everybody was just trying to navigate the changes,” said TWS member Julie Thorstenson, the executive director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS). “Communication kind of broke down.”
While Tribes have their own governments, the federal government has a trust responsibility—or a legal obligation—to Tribes in the form of protecting Tribal treaty rights, lands, assets and resources. “These services are part of what we receive in lieu of all of the years of what we gave up—our land, our resources and sometimes, unfortunately, our culture and language,” Thorstenson said. “These are not things that are, in our mind, something that is really negotiable.”
Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, the administration enforced the “fork in the road” initiative that included large-scale termination of probationary employees. In addition, executive orders called to freeze funding for thousands of federal programs.
Funding freezes and other detrimental federal actions did not spare Tribes. In a survey NAFWS conducted, 60% of Tribes responded that they experienced freezing of grants or other federal funding, and 26% faced total cancelation of federal funding. In addition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education lost a number of federal employees.
Loss of services and grants
The freezing of federal funds is affecting ongoing survey work with some Tribes, Thorstenson said. Some Tribes conduct fisheries surveys, using the data to determine harvest allocations and request subsistence harvest tags. She’s heard of one Tribe pausing these surveys during seasonal harvest. “These things aren’t something you can push off 30 days,” Thorstenson said. Ultimately, they never conducted the surveys.
Grant money that some Tribes count on has also disappeared. Arbor Day Foundation grants provide funds to help community tree planting in economically struggling neighborhoods in reservations, for example.
Sometimes the worry about funding freezes alone has stopped some Tribes from doing work that they would normally get reimbursed for, Thorstenson said.
Communication breakdown
Thorstenson said that communication breakdown has also been a problem. The director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and assistant secretary of Indian affairs have yet to be filled. As a result, it’s unclear how some executive orders are supposed to be implemented. “What we were seeing, and what we were hearing from Tribes, is that it was being implemented inconsistently,” she said.
The loss of Native American liaison positions within the federal government hasn’t helped, Thorstenson said. These positions were created to strengthen the government-to-government relationship between Tribes and the U.S. Their loss makes it harder to ensure the federal government fulfills its trust responsibilities.
She also feels that Tribes are having to reinforce their position as a political entity. “We were kind of at a place that when we came into a room, we didn’t have to have those conversations. We’re really just starting at ground zero again.”
NAFWS’ mission is to listen to Tribes’ needs and elevate their stories. She hopes to understand the sides of the Tribes and the federal government to find common ground.
But with clearer rules for implementation and reliance on other and new partners, Thorstenson hopes Tribes will be able to continue to perform their wildlife conservation and management work.
“I feel like Tribes are probably the most adaptable and resilient,” she said. “It’s amazing that no matter how cruel we are to Mother Earth, she still heals and forgives us. There are still people who are dedicated to the conservation of wildlife. People will find their place in this new structure, and hopefully once we get some solid footing, we’ll adapt.”
