The 11 tribal nations in Wisconsin
have dozens of federal grant
programs, including nearly $3
billion for tribal health,
14 million for broadband,
and more than 10 million connected
to tribal colleges.
Just how vulnerable is this funding
and how might treaty rights be
violated?
Violated, not to mention the
services provided if it gets
wiped away.
We turn to Darcy Hill, chairman
of the Oneida Nation, for his take.
And, Chairman, thanks very much for
being here.
Yes, thank you for the invitation.
So for the Oneida, what
would be potential impacts
of any federal funding freeze?
Yeah, it could be. They could be
quite large depending on how they're
rolled out and the
particulars. So
at Oneida, a very large portion of
our budget actually comes from
federal and state grants.
So it's just
quite clear that would be very
detrimental to our community and for
the levels and for
families and all that
we take care of here in our
neighbor.
And do these grants
impact different tribal
nations differently?
It all depends on what they've been
applied for and granted
at that point. And so continuing
to monitor
each tribe individually
obviously knows what grants they've
been went through the
process to receive and or
other funding mechanisms through
through federal laws.
When you got word that
there was this pause or freeze
on these grant and loan
programs, what was your reaction?
Well, you know, at first it was
well, let's hope
it's not as bad as it's
being made out to be.
Obviously, as it comes to tribal
nations and how we're affected
by the federal dollar and government
shutdowns and
freezes like this is a little bit
different per say,
just depending on what those lines
that are frozen
and how they impact to the nation.
And so, you know, it's definitely
okay, Let's let's see what happens
with this, how these different
departments are handling this
presidential order or this hiring
freeze or not hiring freeze, but
to give grants and loans
and see what
exactly those effects are
on us.
What about
the piece that are binding
commitments in sovereign tribal
nations based on treaty
and trust obligations from land
exchange hundreds of years
ago?
Yeah, that's always the worry.
You know, obviously, tribal nations
that see, you know, upwards of 2
billion acres of land to the birth
of the United States.
And in exchange for that land
was, you know, promises that
we battled every day to
hold the United States accountable
to the promises they made to our
ancestors for
that transaction.
And so that's that's an
everyday battle, no matter who the
president is or who's in Congress.
Tribes stand up together to fight,
fight those battles and do that
education where necessary
to be able to
bring to light those issues when it
comes to funding for tribal nations.
It is. Does this move
seem somehow different
or setting an
alarming precedent in your mind?
I think it is alarming
to a certain extent,
just because a lot of the
president's orders are pretty broad.
And so they're not
specific enough for us to be able to
analyze and be like, okay, this is
how it's going to affect us,
because a lot of it is just left up
to the discretion of
either political appointees or
long term employees who don't
necessarily have the authority to
make the decisions that they
normally would during these
transition period.
So it's really,
you know, kind of like a wait and
see at this point how
those decisions are made and they
trickle down through the system
to have effect on tribal nations.
As to executive
orders coming out of Washington.
We've seen reported that some tribal
members have been detained in
immigration sweeps.
Is that something that you're aware
of in
the Oneida or across the state?
I haven't have know
been able to verify any Oneida
tribal members being detained
or even checked at this point.
I know another tribe
in the state said that they had some
of their tribal members checked but
not detained, just verifying
their ID and and
let you know, continue
on their way to where they were
heading.
But for for us, we
haven't had any verified accounts of
anyone actually being detained.
Is it perversely
in question that all Native
Americans born in the U.S.?
Are citizens
as to this birthright citizenship
issue?
Yeah. You know, the Snyder Act
passed in 1924,
so it's 100 year old law.
And so
I don't think that's really in
question.
It would obviously take an act of
Congress to reverse that decision or
the Supreme Court to
change these types of things.
And so those are kind of long
processes that would
probably see
legal battle the entire way,
you know, along the way it's
processed to the Supreme
Court. And so
I think that's just a longstanding
law that I don't think is in any
question right now.
But it is
in the back of some people's minds
as a threat
to tribal sovereignty.
But I think at this point,
it's it's a long ways off.
That's good news.
Chairman Hill, thanks
very much.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll see. We'll see what happens
because I'm still a little confused
about what is happening with that
federal freeze and whether
it's on or off.
It seems that it's off, but
they want it to be on.
So we'll see what happens.
Yeah, you know, that's kind of the
stance we've been taking with a lot
of these presidential orders is just
making sure that we're aware of
them and then tracking
should they have an impact on the
nation so that we can
confer with our Wisconsin
delegation to
either who may have
the president's ear and
be able to get things changed
as quickly as possible, like what
happened with the with the
spending freeze, essentially?
Yeah. Did you reach out to the
congressional delegation on that?
Yeah, we yeah, we definitely did.
And we're still in the process of,
you know, reaching out to some of
them. But early on,
we did reach out to a couple of
them who were obviously tenured ones
who who are in the everyday
aspect of this.
And we're still continuing to reach
out to the more newly elected ones.
So let them know our stances and
positions and,
you know, kind of the the ins
and outs of how, you know, federal
government relationship is to tribal
nations and how the funding works
and how detrimental
such things as
this.
This order was not being clear
how it affected and who it affected.
Yeah, a little bit of education
along the way, Yeah.
All right. All right.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
All right. You're welcome.