Tribal leaders from northern Minnesota testify in D.C. against Trump’s funding cuts

Tribal leaders from Red Lake, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs and Fond Du Lac reservations went before a House Appropriations Subcommittee this week to ensure federal funding for ongoing projects and obligations through treaty promises are upheld amid large-scale federal cuts.

In the face of sweeping changes in the federal workforce by the Trump administration, their testimony Tuesday stressed the need for full funding at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Health Services (IHS), especially given adverse and disparate health outcomes for Native Americans. Speaking to Chair Mike Simpson, the Republican representative from Idaho who leads the House Interior and Environment Subcommittee on Appropriations, and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., the tribal leaders also called on continued and increased funding for environmental protections and public safety initiatives.

“I’m here seeking longer, healthier, better lives for my people. This is not just a budget request. It is a matter of life and death,” said Mille Lacs Chief Executive Virgil Wind. “Our people are dying younger than other Americans; our elders, the ones who carry our language, who carry our traditions, who carry our history, are being taken from us far too soon.”

Plans to lay off 950 IHS employees were rescinded last week after pressure from Native organizations decrying cuts they said would be catastrophic.

Fond du Lac Tribal Chair Bruce Savage said his band and tribal citizens are concerned about “the far-reaching impacts of the current federal funding freezes, terminations of probationary employees and implementation of the deferred resignation program.”

Savage said the BIA and the Bureau of Indian Education have already lost 200 probationary employees who were providing social services, irrigation, oil and gas activities and other direct services to tribes.

“Given the unique relationship that we have with the United States, we are still forced to rely on federal employees to process approvals for a wide variety of things that allow us to function and operate, like rights of ways, agreements, leases, contracts, ordinances, funding agreements and more,” Savage said. “We are already negatively impacted by the federal freeze on funding.”

Leonard Fineday, secretary-treasurer for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, said the band is in the midst of moving a tribal office that’s on a toxic Superfund site. Federal dollars through the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental and climate justice block grant have already been committed to the project, Fineday said.

“While this grant has all the buzz words that raise flags for the recent executive actions, this grant has nothing to do with diversity, equity, inclusion and everything to do with the federal responsibility to protect our treaty rights and the health and safety of our employees,” he said, adding that “Leech Lake remains concerned that the executive actions could impact other agencies.”

Fineday and Red Lake Tribal Chair Darrell Seki Sr. spoke to the success of the BIA’s Tiwahe Initiative, a program helping reduce suicide rates, improve family reunification, housing and job creation in Indian Country.

“It was a genius program not only that has helped tribal nations in Minnesota, but all around,” McCollum said of Tiwahe, which tribes request to be fully funded in 2026 with $83.6 million.

Seki said there is an opioid crisis fueled by non-Native drug dealers bringing poison (fentanyl) onto his reservation. He supports the recommendation for an additional $1.1 billion for tribal law enforcement, courts and detention operations.

“We also ask the subcommittee to provide $8.5 million specifically for Red Lake to make us whole for the funding we had to pull from other critical programs to fulfill BIA’s trust responsibility over the last two years,” he said, adding that challenges persist because tribes cannot arrest and prosecute non-Natives.

“Drug dealers know this, and they keep coming back at Red Lake’s expense,” Seki said.

He added that when he testified before the subcommittee in 2018, they rejected Trump’s proposed cuts. “Now I want to ask each of you on this subcommittee if you are going to do the same for fiscal year 2026,” Seki said.

Fineday said he is committed to efficiency and accountability, but “the one-size-fits-all all approach” taken by the Trump administration is “instilling fear and uncertainty in our communities.”

The people implementing federal efficiency efforts “have no background in history or law about the government’s treaty and trust responsibility to Indian Country,” Fineday said “So, we are calling on this subcommittee and others in Congress to stand with us to uphold these solemn obligations.”