‘Life or Death Consequences’: Layoffs throw Indian Country into turmoil

By Jourdan Bennett-Begaye | ICT

A coalition of tribal organizations issued a sharp response to the ongoing layoffs of thousands of federal employees across Indian Country, expressing “grave concerns” about the “catastrophic” impact to Indian health services, education, law enforcement, fire suppression and other programs delivering services to tribal nations, citizens and communities.

The letter, delivered Friday as the layoff notices were arriving in employee emails, urges the Office of Personnel Management alongside agency heads and the Department of Government Efficiency to provide exemptions for workers providing tribal services that are obligated under treaty and trust obligations.

The cutbacks could have “unintended life or death consequences” for tribal citizens who rely on the services, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by ICT.

“Thus far, we have only seen limited exemptions for Federal employees serving Indian Country which do not go far enough to protect essential workers, services, and funds Tribal Nations rely on,” according to the letter.

“When paired with the pauses on Federal funding that affected services Tribal Nations provide to their communities, the loss of Federal employees providing direct services to Tribal communities would be catastrophic,” the letter stated.

The letter was addressed to OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell and signed by 16 tribal organizations and the Navajo Nation.

The layoff notices were going out Friday to probationary federal workers who had been hired within the last year or two and were not yet covered under the civil service regulations that protect other federal workers.

The cuts are expected to cause deep cuts to the Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice and any tribal offices within federal agencies.

“Tribes who receive direct service will be hit the hardest,” one official told ICT. Programs that fall under so-called 638 contracts or compacts will not be affected in this wave of layoffs, according to the official.

Layoffs were initially expected to include 2,200 IHS workers, of whom 1,400 provided direct patient care, including more than 90 physicians, 350 nurses, at least 25 nurse practitioners, nearly 20 dentists, 43 dental assistants, more than 85 pharmacists, 45 lab technicians, 25 hospital social workers, 45 lab technicians, nearly 130 medical assistants, as well as paramedics, dieticians, behavioral health workers, hospital food service workers, nursing assistants and more than 15 service area chief executives or their deputies.

But the White House issued an exemption Friday afternoon for certain IHS workers that reduced the total layoffs to 950, officials told ICT. Details were not immediately available on whether or how many doctors, nurses and other direct-care workers would be affected.

Nonetheless, the impact would be severe, officials said.

“Such a drastic reduction in force would lead to the immediate cancellation of medical services and procedures,” the coalition letter states. “There are 214 Tribal Nations that receive some of all of their care directly from IHS, and losing probationary providers and staff would mean a loss of health and ultimately mortality. Indian Country cannot afford emergency rooms and clinics being forced to shut down or significantly downsize, eliminating critical access to care.”

Federal employees, civil service and United States Public Health Services Commissioned Officers make up the approximately 15,000 employees at IHS, according to the agency’s website.

The letter notes that IHS has some standing exemptions “but they are too limited to ensure the agency can effectively meet direct care services,” given its 30 percent existing vacancy rate. At any time, IHS has 14 to 18 percent of probationary staff.

In past years IHS has been exempt from staff reductions, freezes, and other personnel action, especially during government shutdowns.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs has provided broad exemptions, and the same should be provided for IHS,” states the letter.

The layoffs are also expected to hit about 2,600 workers at the Department of the Interior, 118 BIA workers, two positions in the Office of Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs and about half the Office of Tribal Justice at the Department of Justice.

The BIE is expected to lose one-third of its administrative workforce, with about 40 employees expected to lose their jobs, sources told ICT Friday.

The deputy bureau director for BIE school operations oversees more than 120 employees who are responsible for the BIE budget, grants management, finance, safety management, facilities and environmental-related issues for BIE-funded schools and two tribal colleges, Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico, according to the BIE website. Of the entire BIE-operated school system, there are about 5,000 administrators, teachers and personnel.

Haskell is expected to lose 24 percent of its staff and could face loss of accreditation, a source told ICT. The workers were told they must be gone by 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday.

In addition, employees at the Office of Justice Services housed in the Department of the Interior, social workers, firefighters and police could be impacted, officials said. The Office of Justice Services provides safety to Native communities and upholds tribal sovereignty.

The cutbacks would “severely impact” critical services, the letter states.

“For example, wildfires across the western United States have led Tribal Nations to request additional staffing for Wildland Fire Management,” according to the letter. “These essential employees, who protect rural communities from fire devastation, would be lost under the current workforce reduction plans. Public safety, law enforcement, social services and emergency response programs would also be compromised.”

Detention and correction programs for 19 tribes in 11 states will also be affected, sources said.

The letter was approved during an emergency meeting by the coalition Friday morning that came after news broke late Thursday about the directive for widespread layoffs from the Trump administration.

“Tribes who receive direct service will be hit the hardest,” one official told ICT. Programs that fall under 638 contracts or compacts will not be affected in this wave of layoffs, according to the official.

The letter said federal jobs and funding are obligations the United States has acknowledged through its trust and treaty obligations, the letter said.

“Tribal Nations’ exercise of our sovereignty and the United States’ delivery on its trust and treaty obligations must not became collateral damage in the Administration’s implementation of its priorities,” the letter concludes.

“We look forward to this Administration ensuring that Tribal communities do not bear the brunt of broader federal policy changes. We stand ready to meet with you and others within the Trump Administration to discuss this urgent matter further.”

A.C. Locklear II, the National Indian Health Board’s interim chief executive officer, told attendees at the National Congress of American Indians Executive Council Winter Session on Wednesday, Feb. 12, that disruption to services can have a devastating impact on American Indians and Alaska Natives, especially when hiring is already a problem in rural and urban tribal communities.

“All those individuals within the Indian health … system are critical, especially right now, because everyone plays a critical part,” he said. “It can have catastrophic results that we saw in the shutdown in 2019.”

Tribal leaders, organizations, and Native people can get updates and resources on The Coalition Group website.

In addition to the Navajo Nation, 16 organizations signed the letter: Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, California Tribal Chairpersons Association, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association, Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes, National American Indian Court Judges Association, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, National Congress of American Indians, National Council of Urban Indian Health, National Indian Child Welfare Association, National Indian Education Association, National Indian Health Board, National Indigenous, Women’s Resource Center, Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium, and United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund.

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