New York, NY (February 15, 2025) — The Trump Administration began firing thousands of federal employees still in their probationary period, including employees hired within the last year to two years. The layoffs are expected to include employees from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Indian Health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and numerous other agencies or departments that help carry out the United States Federal Trust Responsibility to Tribal nations. The following statement from Judith LeBlanc (Caddo), executive director of Native Organizers Alliance and NOA Action Fund, can be quoted in part or in full.
“The largest single employer of Native people is the federal government. Federal employees play a critical role in ensuring that the rights of our sovereign Tribal nations are upheld. The federal government is legally responsible for ensuring that our Tribal programs are funded and run smoothly. Blanket layoffs to these programs without a process in place to ensure that the federal agencies can carry out the duties of the nation-to-nation relationship between Tribes and the Administration means that these actions potentially violate the law.
The Trump administration must ensure that employee layoffs do not impact our legal and inherent rights to essential human services guaranteed by treaties that were signed in exchange for land. These services are the centerpiece of our nation-to-nation relationship mandated by the U.S. Constitution. If the layoffs happen, the impact will be unfathomable. Tribes’ ability to self-govern will be threatened, from providing healthcare and education to carrying out social services and managing our lands.
Indian Country must continue to mobilize and take action to defend Tribal sovereignty and human rights and protect the future of all of our generations from ongoing threats by the United States. All employees serving Indian Country and fulfilling the United States’ obligations to Tribal nations should be exempt from layoffs.
Full and appropriate staffing at all levels of government is essential to upholding Tribal sovereignty. Gutting entire federal agencies poses an extreme risk to all sovereign nations, citizens, and Native communities. We are not a special interest group or NGO — the federal government is legally obligated to fund and support our Tribal programs and infrastructure.
Indian Country will monitor these actions closely to ensure that the Administration acts according to the Constitution.”