The first year of the Trump administration’s second term has caused deep harm through policies and actions that erode the rights, dignity, safety, and security of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations.
The administration is also targeting the most vulnerable among us, including Trans people and immigrants—many of whom belong to Indigenous communities from places where the U.S. has imposed violence and extractivism, creating the need to migrate in the first place. These attacks share a common pattern: the dehumanization of those deemed “other” through false information, violence, intimidation, forced removal, and the systematic disregard for the laws and treaties of this land.
As an Indigenous-led and U.S.-registered nonprofit organization, we stand in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized communities, facing and documenting firsthand the violence of this administration. We are actively monitoring these developments and working alongside our partners to challenge policies that threaten Indigenous lands, cultures, and self-determination.
Indigenous Peoples have righteously resisted Imperialism for hundreds of years, and we will continue to do so. Our ancestors, who faced apocalyptic conditions, taught us to be strong, resilient, and to never back down when there is a need to protect and defend our communities, our neighbors, and our homelands. Most importantly, our ancestors, languages, and cultures are centered on values that teach us how to peacefully co-exist and care for each other in ways that will sustain us and our relationships with Mother Earth into the future.
We have outlasted every effort to erase us. This time will be no different. We shall remain.
Treaties Are Law, Not Requests
Ensuring that the U.S. government upholds its treaty obligations and respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples is not just a matter of legal and moral responsibility—it is fundamental to strengthening the nation’s integrity, to honoring commitments made over centuries, and fostering a more just, equitable, and inclusive society.
To date, there are 574 federally recognized Tribes in the United States, including more than 220 Alaska Native villages. These Native Nations, as governmental sovereigns, hold a unique status with the United States based on approximately 374 binding treaties that were ratified by 1871. The U.S. Constitution upholds these treaties as the supreme law of the land, superior to state laws, and in effect unless superseded by acts of Congress.
Federal funding programs and regulatory mechanisms that deliver services and facilitate Tribal Nations' sovereignty and self-determination are created by federal laws and policies reinforcing the government's responsibilities to Native Nations, their citizens, and their institutions. The Trump administration is violating these obligations through significant cuts to funding and programs, disrupting essential services that Native communities depend on.
We recognize that the violations of treaty obligations are not new; they date to the founding of this country. But that history does not excuse the present. It demands repair.
The Record of Harm
Detained on Our Own Land: Immigration Enforcement Impacting Indigenous People
More than 290,000 people have been detained by ICE since President Trump took office last year, many of whom are Indigenous to Central and South America, where U.S. policies have contributed to political instability and other threats to human rights and well being, such as climate change.
Alarmingly, members of sovereign Native Nations within U.S. borders are also being detained. The Navajo Nation has expressed concern over multiple incidents. At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have been detained or interrogated in their homes or workplaces.
In January, at least five Native men were detained in Minneapolis, prompting local Tribes to condemn the actions, assist affected members, and begin providing Tribal ID cards to protect residents from racial profiling and future arbitrary detentions. Also in January, three Oglala Lakota men were held by ICE, according to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Freezing Funding, Cutting Services, and Laying off Federal Workers
The administration issued a directive to freeze federal grants, temporarily halting or eliminating an estimated $24.5 billion in funding for Tribal governments and organizations. These cuts affect essential services like health care, education, law enforcement, housing, and social services— programs that exist because of federal trust responsibilities established through treaties.
Cuts to national safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs disproportionately affect Native communities, who often experience higher rates of poverty and serve in the military at higher rates than other groups.
The dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and subsequent $1.1 billion funding loss have threatened the existence of Tribal radio stations. Around 57 stations serving Native communities, heavily dependent on CPB grants for over 50% of their budgets, face closures, loss of emergency alert systems, and reduced language revitalization efforts. These stations are often the only lifeline for many Tribal communities.
Impact on Indigenous Education
There are currently 37 Tribal Colleges and Universities serving over 15,000 students across the United States. These institutions provide culturally relevant education, incorporating Native languages, histories, and traditions into their curricula. Recent funding challenges, policy changes, and steps to dismantle the Department of Education have threatened federal support for these institutions, impacting Indigenous students' access to higher education.
Eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives and Federally Recognized Diversity Holidays
Executive actions have aimed at eliminating DEI initiatives within federal agencies, including the removal of training programs that address racial equity and historical injustices faced by Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized communities. Policies restricting the recognition and celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day and Native American Heritage Month have been circulated across federal agencies. In 2025, President Trump reversed the Biden-era practice of issuing dual proclamations for Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day, opting to officially recognize only Columbus Day.
Attacking Climate Protections
President Trump initiated the withdrawal of the United States from key climate and human rights agreements, including the Paris Climate Agreement for a second time, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the World Health Organization. Grants related to climate resiliency and environmental justice, which are important for protecting Tribal lands and water quality, are being flagged for termination.
Regulatory Rollbacks of Environmental Regulations
The Trump administration is attempting to dismantle the National Environmental Policy Act and other regulations that ensure Tribal rights to hunt, fish, and harvest are protected. These actions, coupled with proposed staff reductions at environmental agencies, threaten natural resources in Indian Country.
In Alaska, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Trump administration opened the Porcupine caribou’s calving grounds, an area sacred to the Gwich’in People, to oil and gas leasing.
Policies Threatening Indigenous Lands
A series of executive orders favoring the fossil fuel industry, including removing restrictions on drilling and promoting liquefied natural gas exports, raises serious concerns about the protection of Tribal lands from resource extraction. Kathleen Sgamma, an oil and gas lobbyist who has been involved in Project 2025, has been tapped to oversee the Bureau of Land Management. Secretary of the Interior Douglas Burgum has executed executive orders by announcing a 15-day review of all lands previously withdrawn from resource extraction without Tribal consultation.
In his first term in 2017, President Trump issued the largest rollback of federal land protections in U.S. history, reducing Bears Ears National Monument by 95% and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 47%. That process at least included public comment and Tribal consultation. The order issued by Secretary Burgum does not.
Questioning Birthright Citizenship
The Trump administration has raised legal questions regarding the birthright citizenship of Native Americans, citing 19th-century legal precedents predating the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans. Recent challenges have suggested a potential reconsideration of their status. Legal scholars and Indigenous advocates argue that such a move could undermine Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. Here for millennia before this nation existed, our belonging is not up for debate.
Erasing Indigenous Place Names
Denali is a traditional Koyukon Athabascan name that means "The High One." After a century of designation as Mount McKinley, in 2015, the Obama administration formally recognized the mountain by its original, Indigenous name. Upon taking office, the Trump administration reversed this change, reinstating the name Mount McKinley.
This reversal aligns with broader efforts to undo Indigenous name restorations. Twenty-seven U.S. states have names of Indigenous origin, along with countless cities, rivers, and landmarks. Place names hold knowledge, wisdom, stories, and histories. An institutionalized campaign to erase Indigenous place names is an attempt to make invisible the truth of a history, a present, and an ongoing obligation to the Native Peoples of this land.
Impacts on Indigenous Peoples Globally
Indigenous Peoples' rights around the world are under renewed threat following the Trump administration’s dismantling of the controversial and problematic agency USAID. The agency’s largest initiative, the Partnership for the Conservation of Amazon Biodiversity, focuses on conservation and improving livelihoods for Indigenous people. Approximately two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, the largest rainforest in the world, is in Brazil.
The recent threats to take over Greenland have received momentous resistance from Indigenous Peoples, as approximately 90% of Greenland’s population, roughly 51,000 people, are Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit (Kalaallit).
A U.S. military attack in Venezuela has raised alarms among Indigenous communities about potential impacts on their territories and rights.
Pushing for Deep Sea Mining
The Trump administration’s emphasis on U.S. leadership in the deep-sea mining arena demonstrates a commitment to an approach to securing transition mineral supply chains that gravely impacts Indigenous communities. Areas of concern are the waters around Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, home to Indigenous Peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean.
Where We Stand
Cultural Survival calls on the Trump administration to recognize that human rights are universal and that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are human rights and collective rights based on inherent sovereignty.
These rights are enshrined in international law and policies, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development without discrimination.
As an Indigenous-led organization, we carry the strength of our ancestors and the responsibility to protect our lands, territories, waters, languages, and future generations. We must choose a path rooted in equity, respect, and justice—one that honors and respects the dignity of all Peoples and rejects exploitation, division, and harm.
What You Can Do
1. Stand Together: Whether you are Indigenous or an ally, this is the moment to build solidarity across communities. Attend events, join coalitions, show up for each other.
2. Speak Up. Contact Your Elected Representatives: Demand that Congress uphold treaty obligations, restore funding to Tribal programs, and investigate ICE detention of Native citizens and Tribal members. Call both of your senators and your representative. Congress has the constitutional power to act. Let them know it matters to you.
3. Support Indigenous-led Organizations: support Indigenous-led organizations doing the work of documentation, advocacy, and human rights legal defense. This work depends on all of us.
4. Amplify Indigenous Voices: Share this statement. Follow Indigenous journalists, advocates, and organizations. Counter erasure with visibility. Use your platform, whatever its size, to ensure these stories are heard.
5. Share this statement and talk about these issues in your circles.
Injustice depends on silence. Stand with us and refuse to be silent!
Top photo by Chenae Bullock.
