The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is looking to end Bureau of Indian Affairs leases around the country – with several offices set to close in Montana later this year. The BIA is responsible for managing trust lands and resources on behalf of tribes and individual Indian landowners, ensuring their protection and conservation.
Blackfeet Tribal Chairman Rodney Gervais Jr. says that there’s a lot of uncertainty with how the reduction of these offices will affect tribal reservations in Montana. Tribes like the Blackfeet are preparing for the worst.
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“We don't see the full effect just yet. And I know there's been a lot of cuts throughout the nation. Within our tribal programs, of course we're getting ready."
In the many treaties the U.S. signed with tribal nations, it outlined several rights owed to them — like land rights and healthcare through departments like Indian Health Services.
Trust responsibilities are the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold those rights.
The Bureau Of Indian Affairs (BIA), as an agency of the Department Of The Interior that plays a crucial role in upholding the federal government's trust responsibility to tribes, including protecting tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights, and supporting tribal self-governance.
With BIA offices closing and the potential for more to close, this could be a breach in those treaties.
“We have had treaties long before Montana was even a state,” explain Gervais. “We've had federal relationships within our treaties, within our agreements, and those have to be honored.”
Two BIA offices in Pablo and Poplar are set to be shut down toward the end of the year.
The Blackfeet tribe works with the BIA office located in Browning, with a regional office located in Billings, but some employees in the BIA have been dismissed.
The impact to Montana tribes is still unknown, but that haven’t stopped tribal nations from preparing.
Gervais added, “I’m having a discussion with some of the council and our Tribal treasurer, and we've had this discussion a while back to ensure that there's a safety net. But if there's more drastic movement, we just have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
