Will Our Indigenous Peoples Become a Footnote in History
In these challenging times, we stand at a critical crossroads. The recent decisions by the current U.S. administration and Congress to enact devastating budget cuts are threatening the very fabric of our Indigenous communities. These cuts, totaling billions of dollars, are not just numbers on a page; they represent a direct attack on our future, our health, our education, and our cultural survival.
The Assault on Tribal Colleges
Funding for our tribal colleges and universities has been slashed by nearly 90%, plummeting from over $182 million to just $22 million for 2026. This includes severe and specific cuts to two of our most sacred institutions: Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute. These are not reductions. This is a dismantling—a deliberate unraveling of sacred promises and treaty obligations.
Even before these cuts, Congress was underfunding tribal colleges by over a quarter of a billion dollars annually, a longstanding failure to meet trust responsibilities. Yet instead of repairing this harm, the Bureau of Indian Education, responsible for requesting sufficient funding, never even asked for full support.
These institutions are not just schools. They are spiritual strongholds, language sanctuaries, and cultural fires that have burned brightly through generations of hardship. Our tribal colleges have preserved endangered languages, sustained sacred knowledge, and trained generations of young leaders in both ancestral wisdom and modern skills.
Now, those lifelines face collapse. Facilities crumble. Water pipes burst. Roofs leak. Hope dims.
And yet, Congress has passed this budget. The betrayal is not speculative. It is done.
The Crisis in Indian Health Services
As if attacking our education were not enough, over $1 billion has now been slashed from Indian Health Services—another sacred trust. This includes cuts to essential medical care, preventative programs, and mental health services.
Our people already suffer from disproportionately high rates of diabetes, heart disease, addiction, and suicide. With these cuts, how many more of our children will go untreated? How many Elders will die waiting for care that never comes?
How many will leave this world without dignity or healing simply because their lives were deemed less valuable by a system built on broken treaties?
This is not just policy. It is a death sentence for many.
A Broader Pattern of Disempowerment
What we are witnessing is not isolated. It is part of a calculated pattern—a broader attempt to undermine tribal sovereignty, break apart community structures, and erode Indigenous leadership. For what? Our Land!
According to the Coalition for Tribal Sovereignty, discretionary spending for Native peoples is now at its lowest point in History. Every dimension of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is being cut. Every pillar that holds up the promise of our survival is being chipped away.
We must not be naïve. This is a moment of spiritual and political emergency. And you can be sure that Canada First Nations and Indigenous communities will be next!
The Urgency of Unity and the Sacred Gift We Carry
We must be clear: our greatest weakness is our disunity, not only among Nations, but within families, councils, and communities.
When we are divided through ego, jealousy, past wounds, or lateral violence, we become easy to dismiss, to cut, to erase.
Yes, colonization inflicted significant harm. Divide-and-conquer tactics broke our circles. Physical Cultural genocide tried to eliminate and make us forget. But we must never let our pain become our excuse.
If we do not unite, we will vanish—not with a bang, but with a silence. Our ceremonies will be relics. Our languages will fade. Our children will inherit an identity stripped of meaning.
And if that happens, we will have no one left to blame but ourselves.
But our unity is not just for our survival. It is for the world.
We are not victims. We are visionaries. We are the carriers of sacred instructions for humanity’s future.
Our Indigenous knowledge, our deep relationship with Mother Earth, our understanding of balance, reciprocity, and sacred governance, these are not just for us. They are the medicine the world is crying out for.
The forests burn. The waters rise. Greed poisons the people’s hearts. Humanity is in crisis.
But we carry the songs. We carry the seeds. We carry the sacred fire.
Now is the time to fulfill the prophecies. The Eagle of the North and the Condor of the South are called to fly together. The Quetzal and the Hummingbird rise with them. The Sacred Hoop must be made whole.
The Choice Before Us
We can continue blaming. We can retreat into isolation. We can fragment ourselves into irrelevance. Or, we can rise. Let us rise together, not in anger alone, but in sacred responsibility.
Let us remember who we are. Let us return to our sacred teachings. Let us walk the path our ancestors laid with their prayers, tears, and songs. Let us restore the Sacred Hoop. Let us protect the future of our children. Let us offer our sacred gifts to humanity. We are still here. We are rising. And we will not let our fire die.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — All Our Relations.
Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr., Šuŋ́kmanu hé miye do- Čhaŋnúpa Sápa hé miye do
I am a Leader of Warriors Who Takes the Enemy’s Horses,-I am a Sacred Black Pipe Born of Thunder, Lightning, and Rain.
Híŋhaŋ Wičhášta and Delória Tióšpaye, Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Chikashsha Nations
And I Stand Fully Responsible For All My Words and Actions before Our Creator, Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka, the Great Mystery
