Overview:
A new Brookings Metro analysis finds that DOGE canceled nearly $469 million in federal grants and contracts to Tribal Nations and Native organizations, disproportionately affecting environmental protection, agriculture, climate resilience and economic development while raising concerns about the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribes.
Tribal Nations and Native organizations lost nearly $470 million in federal funding through grant and contract cancellations attributed to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to a new analysis by the Brookings Metro that documents the disproportionate impact of the federal spending cuts on Indian Country.
The report, DOGE’s Impact in Indian Country: Nearly $470 Million in Lost Funding, estimates that DOGE canceled 1,597 grants and contracts affecting Tribal Nations and Native organizations, totaling $468.7 million in de-obligated federal funding.
The findings show that Native recipients lost a greater percentage of their obligated funding than non-Native recipients. The cuts disproportionately affected environmental protection, agriculture, climate resilience and economic development projects intended to strengthen Tribal communities.
The report was authored by Robert Maxim, Glencora Haskins, Mary Elizabeth Campbell and Ryan Williams.
Although Native Americans account for an estimated 1% to 2.7% of the U.S. population, funding cuts affecting Tribal Nations and Native organizations represented approximately 6.5% of all DOGE spending reductions that the researchers could verify through federal spending records.
The analysis found that Native recipients lost 12.1% of the funding obligated under canceled awards, compared with 8.3% for non-Native recipients.
The authors argue that the cancellations harmed Native communities while raising questions about the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.
“By cutting funding that had already been promised to Tribal nations and Native organizations, DOGE’s actions violate federal trust and treaty obligations to Tribes,” the report states.
Environmental programs and agriculture hit hardest
Environmental initiatives accounted for the largest share of funding losses affecting Indian Country.
More than 65% of canceled grants and contracts to Native recipients were classified under natural resources and the environment, while another 11% were categorized as agriculture.
Within the environmental category, pollution control and abatement accounted for more than 61% of all funding DOGE cut in Indian Country, according to the analysis.
The cuts affected projects designed to improve energy independence, address climate change, protect ancestral lands and expand economic opportunities for Native communities.
In Kotzebue, an Alaska Native village, DOGE terminated an approximately $20 million Environmental Protection Agency Community Change grant intended to help the community build and independently own two wind turbines.
The project was designed to generate local energy and provide revenue for Tribal programs and essential community needs, including water and sewer improvements and economic development.
Kotzebue relies in part on outside sources of diesel fuel to meet its energy needs. The proposed wind turbines were intended to improve the reliability and independence of the community’s energy system.
Other canceled awards included funding for the Nevada Clean Energy Fund and the Walker River Paiute Tribe to implement a multiyear climate resilience plan. Funding for a river stabilization project intended to help the Alaska Native village of Kipnuk remain on its ancestral land was also terminated.
The researchers noted that many of the canceled environmental and agricultural awards also supported Tribal economic development and workforce opportunities.
The Chippewa Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana lost $6 million intended to purchase reservation land for young farmers to manage.
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota also lost an approximately $2 million award that would have established a revolving fund to help prospective farmers purchase property.
In Montana, the Piikani Lodge Health Institute had planned to use a nearly $9 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to build an industrial community kitchen and producer training hub on the Blackfeet Reservation.
The project was expected to support approximately 300 Native and non-Native farmers and ranchers in Glacier and Pondera counties.
The grant was part of the USDA’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, established under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to help underserved and young agricultural producers gain access to land, capital, markets and technical assistance.
The authors said the canceled investments would have helped Tribal Nations develop stronger agricultural economies and create sustainable economic opportunities for their citizens.
12 states lost the largest share of funding
The analysis found that Alaska, Virginia and Wisconsin had the largest amounts of Native-focused funding de-obligated through DOGE cancellations.
However, the percentage of funding lost was particularly severe in several states with smaller Native populations.
According to the report, Tribal Nations and Native organizations in 12 states lost more than half of the funding obligated under affected awards.
Oregon experienced a loss of more than 90% of obligated funding associated with the affected awards. Rhode Island and Michigan each lost more than 80%.
The report noted that states in the West and the National Capital Region experienced elevated funding losses. The latter includes national Native-serving nonprofit organizations located in and around Washington, D.C.
The geographic findings illustrate how federal grant cancellations affected not only states with large Native populations but also Tribal Nations and Native organizations operating in other parts of the country.
Native recipients lost a larger share of awarded funding
The researchers found that the impact of DOGE’s cancellations on Indian Country differed from the effects on non-Native organizations.
Approximately 65% of canceled awards to Tribal Nations and Native organizations involved natural resources and environmental programs, compared with about 40% of DOGE cuts overall.
More than half of the canceled awards and contracts to Native recipients were funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, compared with slightly more than 20% of canceled awards to non-Native recipients.
Health-related programs represented a smaller share of the cuts affecting Indian Country. Approximately 5% of DOGE cuts to Native recipients involved health, compared with 18% of cuts overall.
The report attributed the larger share of health-related cuts among non-Native recipients largely to reductions in pandemic-era public health funding, including awards for state public health agencies, infectious disease research and vaccine production.
The authors suggested that one factor contributing to the disproportionate impact on Native recipients may be the amount of unspent funding remaining in federal awards to Tribal Nations and Native organizations.
Tribes face barriers to accessing and spending federal funding, which can slow the rate at which they draw down awarded money. According to the report, that can leave more unspent funding vulnerable to cancellation.
Full impact may be greater than $470 million
The researchers said their analysis focused specifically on grant and contract cancellations attributed to DOGE. It did not calculate the effects of federal employee layoffs, agency closures or downsizing.
Those actions also affected Native-serving institutions and programs.
The report cited Haskell Indian Nations University, a Bureau of Indian Affairs-managed institution, where more than one-quarter of staff positions were cut through DOGE-mandated layoffs.
Dalton Henry, interim president of the university’s board of regents, warned that the staffing reductions would have “disastrous consequences for fulfilling its educational mission.”
Because the analysis excludes these broader disruptions, the authors said the full financial and operational consequences for Indian Country are likely greater than the $468.7 million documented in the report.
How the researchers calculated the losses
To assess the cancellations, the researchers compared spending reductions reported by DOGE with de-obligation data from USAspending.gov, the federal government’s spending database.
The report said this cross-check was necessary because previous reporting had raised questions about the accuracy of headline spending-reduction figures published on DOGE’s website.
The researchers also used recipient classifications, geographic information and databases identifying Tribal governments, Native-owned organizations, Tribal colleges and other Native-serving institutions to identify affected awards.
The analysis examined de-obligations reported from the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 through the end of fiscal year 2026.
The authors concluded that DOGE’s funding cancellations disproportionately affected Tribal Nations and Native organizations and threatened investments in environmental protection, food and agricultural systems, economic development and community infrastructure.
For Tribal Nations, the losses extend beyond the dollar amounts canceled. The affected awards were intended to support community priorities, create economic opportunities and help Native communities build greater self-sufficiency.
