April 2025: Native American Legislative Update

Welcome to FCNL’s Native American Legislative Update! NALU is a monthly newsletter about FCNL’s Native American policy advocacy and ways for you to engage members of Congress.

By Rachel Overstreet | April 29, 2025

National Endowment for the Humanities Cuts Grants to Investigate Indian Boarding Schools

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has rescinded approximately $1.5 million in grants for digitizing records and collecting testimonies related to U.S. government-run Indian boarding schools. These institutions, operating from approximately 1819 to 1969, aimed to assimilate Native American children by eradicating their cultural identities.

The funding cuts included the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which is developing an online database of archival records.

FCNL is deeply disappointed in this decision. Confronting the government’s role in this injustice is crucial to healing for survivors and their communities.

FCNL has always supported government transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to reducing wasteful spending. Every administration can evaluate programs for effectiveness. However, the government must spend money as appropriated by Congress. Programs for Native Americans have broad bipartisan support. Suddenly and arbitrarily pulling such funding is unacceptable.

Executive Order Fast-Tracks Mining Projects Including Oak Flat Transfer

The Trump administration announced it plans to quickly move forward with a copper mine in a site sacred to the Western Apache in Arizona. It will approve a controversial land transfer despite ongoing legal challenges. Resolution Copper would carry out the proposed project that threatens Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, a site integral to Western Apache religious ceremonies. The mining method planned, block caving, would leave a massive crater and effectively destroy the sacred landscape.

Environmental assessments indicate that the mine would consume the water equivalent of a city of 185,000 people annually in an arid area. Despite this, the administration is proceeding with the land exchange, prioritizing the extraction of minerals over Native rights and environmental protection. A lawsuit to halt the project remains before the Supreme Court.

Tribal Organizations Oppose Budget Cuts to Bureau of Indian Affairs

A coalition of over 20 tribal organizations—including the National Congress of American Indians, National Indian Health Board, and Native American Rights Fund—sent a letter urging Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to oppose the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed $1.2 billion cut to the Indian Affairs budget for Fiscal Year 2026. The coalition emphasized that these reductions would threaten critical services and violate the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Native nations.

Tribal leaders argue that one of the proposals, rescinding $100 million to the Office of Justice Services (OJS), directly undermines the administration’s priorities for Indian Country. President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have repeatedly emphasized public safety in tribal communities. This includes recent commitments by the attorney general to surge FBI agents working on open cases in Indian Country. However, the proposed budget cut to OJS—which is responsible for law enforcement and public safety in many tribal areas—would defund the agencies that keep tribal communities safe.

A 2021 Tribal Law and Order Act report concluded that $3.5 billion is needed to meet the federal government’s public safety obligations in Indian Country or roughly six times what is currently appropriated. If the Trump administration is serious about its public safety promises, it must prioritize increased funding for tribal justice systems, and support legislation that empowers tribal law enforcement in their own communities.

HHS Dismantles Healthy Tribes Initiative

The Health and Human Services (HHS) department has dismantled the CDC’s Healthy Tribes Initiative, which supports traditional wellness practices, even as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has highlighted the work that HHS is doing to lower rates of chronic disease in Indian Country.

Tribal leaders are concerned about the future of the Healthy Tribes program after 11 people supporting it were laid off. HHS ignored requirements that they consult with and inform tribal nations before taking such actions. Tribal leaders are urging the restoration of these programs and greater autonomy in managing culturally-appropriate health initiatives.

What We’re Reading

Rachel Overstreet headshot

Rachel Overstreet

Legislative Representative for Native American Advocacy

Rachel Overstreet (Choctaw Nation) is FCNL’s legislative representative for Native American Advocacy. She advocates for policies that honor tribal sovereignty, help Native communities succeed, and repair relationships between faith communities, the government, and Native people.

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