Native American leaders say layoffs and benefit lapses are making this shutdown more painful for Native communities

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — Native American leaders warned senators last week that mass layoffs and potential benefit lapses are making this government shutdown more painful for their communities and insisted that the federal government fulfill its treaty obligations with tribal nations.

“The shutdown reductions in force have crept into our classrooms, our early childhood programs and our homes. What began as a budget dispute in Washington has become a daily crisis in Indian country,” Kerry Bird, president of the board of directors of the National Indian Education Association, told senators during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Bird and other witnesses were invited by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to testify about how layoffs, also called reductions in force or RIFs, and the shutdown have affected their communities. They emphasized that in reducing the number of the federal employees who interface often with tribes, especially on issues of education, economic development, health and food security, the administration has left Native communities isolated and unsupported at a time when many federal benefits like SNAP are delayed.

GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has long been critical of the Trump administration’s mass layoffs, chaired the hearing, and was the only Republican in attendance.

“The loss of employees with deep institutional knowledge and long standing relationships with Native communities, weakens the effectiveness of these crucial federal programs,” Murkowski said as the hearing opened.

As the hearing began, Bird told senators that he had just been told that seven of nine employees at the Office of Indian Education under the Department of Education had been laid off.

“That means no one to process grants, approved budgets or support in tribal education departments and Indian parent committees. If these terminations are allowed to go into full effect, Indian education programs as we know them would be functionally eliminated,” said Bird.

“When our ancestors signed treaties with the United States, they did so in exchange for certain guarantees. One of these was that our children and our children’s children would be educated this obligation is not a discretionary choice, it is the payment on a debt owed,” he added.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who has been one of the few Democrats to break with her party and vote for the GOP-backed stopgap funding resolution to reopen the government, told CNN last week that she believes this shutdown is potentially more harmful to Native communities than past shutdowns have been.

“Yeah, I think, what I hear from the tribes are because of the RIFs, because of the lack of a federal workforce, they’re already getting hit, and now, if some of them are being impacted by the shutdown because they don’t have access to SNAP funding, like some of my tribes, yeah, it’s a double whammy,” said Cortez Masto. “There is a concern that we’ve got to live up to just our existing obligations to the tribes, that the federal government doesn’t and we’ve got to do more.”

“We have a trust and treaty obligation to the tribes, whether there’s a government shutdown or not, and the federal government has a role to play, and we have to continue to support that obligation,” she said.

Sarah Harris, the vice chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe and the secretary of the United South and Eastern Tribes, said that the uncertainty surrounding the shutdown has been particularly harmful.

“I think that one of the things that has been incredibly challenging for tribes during shutdown and with the RIFs is just the complete lack of transparency,” said Harris.

“There’s no end in sight, and there’s no information. I mean, tribal governments are resilient and resourceful, and we are problem solvers, but it’s difficult to know what you’re even solving for – if its short term or if it’s long term – and so I think everyone right now is just, you know, dealing with what’s in front of them and trying to find stopgap measures to provide for our tribal citizens, until, you know, there’s more clarity,” she added.

Two federal judges ruled on Friday that the administration must use emergency funds to continue paying for some SNAP benefits, however that doesn’t cancel out the uncertainty for Native communities.

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the top Democrat on the panel, emphasized the government’s obligations to Native American communities in his opening remarks at the hearing, saying, “when the federal government shuts down, our trust and treaty and legal obligations do not vanish, but they are put at risk. Promises to provide health care, housing, education and public safety, among so many other critical services, are all on the chopping block.”

Schatz added, “Native programs are not DEI spending, they are not charity, they are the law; attempting to cancel funds for Native programs, RIFing more than 4200 federal employees and eliminating tribal consultation policies, that’s not the United States government meeting its trust and legal obligations.”

Murkowski, who represents a state with a large Native America population, emphasized that federal layoffs and potential benefit lapses are disproportionately affecting Native communities, even when they aren’t carried out in agencies specifically tasked with working with tribal nations.

“I think they kind of like, block them off – It’s the Bureau of Indian Education, it’s the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it’s the Indian Health Service. And so, it’s like, okay, but what they’re failing to recognize, perhaps, is how many other programs are serving tribal citizens across this country. And so whether it’s SNAP or whether it’s LIHEAP or whether it’s Head Start, none of those programs have the word Indian in them, but the impact to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians may be, may be disproportionate,” she told CNN.

Murkowski also noted that her Native constituents are particularly concerned about having to choose between food and fuel as winter sets in. The damage from the remnants of Typhoon Halong, which hit Alaska around two weeks into the shutdown, has also complicated matters.

“I think it’s something that for many, is really frightening,” she said, adding “There’s a lot of anxiety when it comes to food security right now. And again, in Alaska, this is the time of year where, okay, nothing is growing. You’ve either, you’ve either gotten your moose or your caribou or your fish, or you haven’t. And for those who were impacted by this, this devastating typhoon two weeks ago, almost all those in those villages have lost their food supply for the winter, the power out, and so food security is a is a big, big deal right now, as we enter wintertime.”

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