07/26/2025
“The Trump administration’s proposed freeze on federal grants would cut $24.5 billion in funding to Native communities for health, law enforcement, education and key social services, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.
The cuts, if they gain approval through the courts, would violate treaty obligations to tribal nations and impact nearly every tribe across the United States, particularly in Oklahoma, the Western Plains, the Southwest, the West Coast and Alaska, according to the analysis.
The funding freeze would impact Native people both on and off reservations, the report notes.
“It’s going to have real on-the-ground effects for people, tribal governments, for the ability for Native people who have real needs to get the services that they’re frankly entitled to because of this longstanding trust and treaty obligation,” said Robert Maxim, Mashpee Wampanoag, a Brookings Metro Fellow who co-authored the report.
“It would be destructive for tribal self-governance,” he said. “This is really the lifeblood of how tribes operate fiscally, but so many tribes are limited in their ability to get revenue.”
The report found that since 2018, the federal government has obligated funding to more than 1,700 tribal governments, Native nonprofits and Native-owned businesses involving more than 750 programs.”
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