Friday, March 7, 2025

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Marie Richards loved her job as a tribal relations specialist for the U.S. National Forest Service. She was one of 3,400 workers targeted for layoffs. (Photo: Izzy Ross / Grist)

Thousands of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) workers were fired in recent weeks — part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government and cut costs.

A federal board this week ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to rehire those it fired.

Before this development, Grist and IPR’s Izzy Ross went to meet one worker caught up in the confusion.

Marie Richards is a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

A little over a year ago, she joined USFS as a tribal relations specialist in northern Michigan.

“There’s the Congressional boundaries of any forest and then there’s actually what the forests own and manage within it but you’ll pass right by on your way to 115 … yeah, see I’m still doing my job and I don’t even work there – that’s how much I loved it!”

That change was sudden. Richards got a phone call from her supervisor on a Saturday in mid-February, telling her she’d been let go.

“I hung up the phone, and I think I screamed, and my neighbor may or may not have heard me scream. I don’t have the heart to ask him.”

Richards was one of thousands of probationary workers targeted for layoffs as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut costs and shrink the federal government — some of which have now been reversed.

She was proud of her job.

“None of us deserved this. We all work hard. We all work hard and we’re dedicated for taking care of the land.”

That land includes almost one million acres and two treaty territories.

Tribal nations ceded that to the federal government, which has a responsibility to keep it in trust for Indigenous peoples.

As a liaison, Richards was part of that. As a tribal citizen, the work was also personal.

“So that was the biggest source of pride for me in doing my job, was helping people understand my tribal nation’s in trust, Little River Band’s in trust, Saginaw Chippewa’s in trust. You know, all the tribes that we communicate with and try to collaborate and engage in cooperative management with.”

She worries about what will happen to that trust responsibility as people like her are laid off.

“That’s a promise, that’s an agreement between the federal government and tribal nations, that there are things we have treaty rights and without the people doing the work to take care of the land, where is that? Where is that? We have to have the public trust to also have tribal trust. Those are intertwined, that we can’t have one without the other.”

Richards isn’t sure what’s next for her.

One thing that is certain is her desire to keep doing work with tribes and heritage.

“It still really hurts that this dream of mine is kind of shattered, and we’ll see. And you know, and find a new dream. But my, ultimately, my career, my livelihood, is in tribal relations for our heritage and I will find a home somewhere.”

A USDA spokesperson confirmed that about two thousand probationary employees had been laid off from USFS.

Richards said on Thursday that she had yet to be reinstated.

This Sunday, AMC’s crime thriller Dark Winds – based on Tony Hillerman’s novels – begins its third season.

Brian Bull has this preview.

“We all have a line that runs down the middle of our heart. That lines separates monsters…from men.”

The new episodes find Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, played by actor Zahn McClarnon, wrestling with his conscience following his actions last season.

“Y’know, he struggles with guilt, that moral gray area he’s kinda found himself in. Questions his decisions, his moral compass and what choices — how they may have cost him. It just puts him into a lot of fear and anxiety this season.”

Kiowa Gordon plays Jim Chee.

He says this season finds the ex-FBI officer trying to gain acceptance back into the Navajo community, and reconcile with a childhood tormentor who’s suspected in a boy’s death.

“He has a chance to confront his demons, so to speak, you know, which is like with Shorty Bull Legs. He’s trying to figure out if this guy is actually the murderer to this child.”

(Courtesy AMC Networks)

Dark Winds has already been greenlit for a fourth season.

Showrunner John Wirth says the cast and crew are all dedicated to making the show authentic and respectful of Native culture.

“Without denigrating Hillerman’s accomplishments or his work at all, I have a sense that he took the Navajo story told it through his own lens. But I think it was somewhat off-putting for Indigenous people who were reading that stuff. What I really wanted to do on this TV show was re-appropriate the stories back to the Navajo people.”