Tribal nations across Oklahoma are feeling pressure from grant freezes, budget cuts and layoffs by the federal government in the early days of the Trump administration.
The uncertainty and snap changes are creating stress. At an Oklahoma State University panel for the school’s 2025 Tribal Summit, some leaders sounded the alarm about the impacts of the administration and its Department of Government Efficiency.
Rocky Barrett is the Chairman of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Shawnee. He spoke on a summit panel about tribal leadership planning for the future and raised concerns about a potential threat that could undermine tribal sovereignty.
Barrett explained that land held in trust by the federal government is known as an equitable trust, meaning the U.S. is the deed owner.
“The difference between an equitable trust and a legal trust is the fact that the federal government could, at will, take our assets, even though there have been, you know, we've had 38 treaties,” he said on the panel.
Barrett said that’s why his tribe is putting more effort into developing assets, such as Sovereign Bank, that are not “subject to the whims of an administration” and may not adhere to their agreement.
Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said he hadn’t heard of that thought process before regarding the taking of land held in trust being taken away from tribes but said Barrett’s theory could be sound.
Standing Bear’s primary concern centered on his community and citizens impacted by the BIA office closure in Pawhuska and the layoff of Osage Agency agent Adam Trumbly.
He mentioned another layoff threat lingers involving BIA employees, saying Oklahoma’s Eastern Regional BIA Office has already submitted a reduction in force, or RIF, list to federal officials in Washington DC.
“As many of you know that all the agencies are supposed to have that list together by March 13,” he addressed the crowd at the panel.
He said 10 to 40 percent of these employees may be “separated.”
Despite more people potentially losing their jobs that support Indian Country, Standing Bear noted Indigenous people can overcome like they always have.
“The only way to survive this is as we always have survived it as a people— try as you can to be unified, but we have to have territorial integrity,” he said. “And we have to maintain our cultures.”
Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Sovereign Bank is a financial supporter of KOSU. But we cover them like any other newsmaker.
