Tuesday, March 11, 2025

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Photo: Kylee Probert. (Courtesy Oregon State University)

The Trump administration is cutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.

NWPB’s Lauren Paterson reports on how that’s affecting funding and projects for tribes.

Kylee Probert is a descendent of the Spokane Tribe.

She grew up in the Northwest and went to college in Washington and Oregon. She landed in Washington, D.C. and in September, she got her dream job: helping oversee grants for tribal communities through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“I wanted to help tribes. I wanted to make a difference in, in government.”

Last month, Probert was fired. She was one of thousands of federal workers whose jobs were terminated during their probationary period. She was managing more than a dozen grants to help tribes across the country.

“There was a big push to cut diversity related projects at HHS and, of course, a lot of my work with tribes fell into that bucket.”

The projects were temporarily halted, and Probert says she has no way to verify if the work will be restarted or renewed.

Rather than feeling deterred, Probert says she feels reinvigorated, and she still wants to make a difference in public health. That could mean going to an Indigenous law school, or finding a new job in health policy.

A project bringing solar energy to the Wind River Reservation has hit some road bumps due to pauses in federal funding. But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann reports, the team is searching for other ways to move forward.

Energize Wind River is poised to set up standalone solar systems and bring electricity to roughly forty Eastern Shoshone homes. But?

“ The ‘but’ would be that our construction funding is currently on hold pending review.”

That’s project director Levi Purdum. He says about $2 million of funding is paused.

Even though the project has funding for training, employees, and outreach, it’s unable to buy or install the solar equipment.

Purdum is optimistic that the funding will eventually come through, but for now, the group secured a $20,000 grant from the Nature Conservancy.

“They wanted to support our non-governmental fundraising efforts, and so the intent is to hire and fund a fundraising specialist.”

Energize Wind River still plans to start construction this spring, if they’re able to raise enough money.

Other tribal nations across the Mountain West are facing similar issues amid budget cuts by the Trump administration.

A Native photojournalist is promoting the idea of a national “Land Back” movement across the U.S. for territory ceded, stolen, or taken during colonization.

Joe Whittle is a member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, and descendent of the Delaware Nation.

A former back country wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, Whittle says he’s proposing that the federal government return its public lands to its original inhabitants.

“Based on the fact that the United States violated every Indian Treaty they ever signed with indigenous peoples. And essentially, my project proposes that tribal citizens come together and form a class action lawsuit to sue for damages due for our treaty violations.”

Whittle’s argument just appeared in Time Magazine. He’s hoping an inspired attorney might take the federal government on.

“There’s also an ecological argument based on our traditional ecological knowledge, and a lot of data that shows that indigenous people are better and more sustainable stewards of the land than private industry or the United States government has ever been, due to how deeply embedded in U.S. politics private industry has become on public lands.”

A presentation and discussion on Whittle’s “Land Back” proposal will be held Tuesday night at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

 

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