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Native Americans hurt by federal health cuts, despite RFK Jr.’s promises of protection
- On June 3, 2025, Navajo Nation leaders in the southwestern US met with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid federal health program cuts affecting Native Americans.
- HHS is reducing its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 positions as a result of Trump-era directives that cut contract expenditures by over a third, actions that tribal leaders claim breach treaty agreements and were carried out without proper consultation.
- These cuts impact tribal health grants, community health workers, vaccination programs, and data services, straining healthcare for Native Americans who have higher chronic illness rates and shorter life expectancy.
- Tribal leaders described the funding cuts as a profound disruption to their communities and a betrayal, while Abigail Echo-Hawk emphasized the severity of the situation, warning that the lack of complete health data could lead to loss of life and poses significant public health risks.
- Despite Kennedy sparing Indian Health Service staff cuts and pledging culturally relevant care, Native leaders remain concerned about collateral harm from cuts and pending Medicaid changes affecting tribal health funding.
15 Articles
15 Articles
‘Slap in the face’: Trump cuts halt Indian boarding school digitization effort
When Iko’tsimiskimaki “Ekoo” Beck’s colleagues at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition traveled to Washington to digitize Indian boarding school records, Beck asked them to search for their late great-aunt, Irene Wall. Wall, who was Blackfeet and grew up in Browning, attended Chemawa Indian School in Oregon in the 1950s with her sister. Sifting through thousands of boarding school records at the National Archives in Sea…
News Medical
Native Americans hurt by federal health cuts, despite RFK Jr.’s promises of protection
Navajo Nation leaders took turns talking with the U.S. government's top health official as they hiked along a sandstone ridge overlooking their rural, high-desert town before the morning sun grew too hot.
Native Americans Hurt by Federal Health Cuts, Despite RFK Jr.’s Promises of Protection
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation leaders took turns talking with the U.S. government’s top health official as they hiked along a sandstone ridge overlooking their rural, high-desert town before the morning sun grew too hot. Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, paused at the edge with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Below them, tribal government buildings, homes, and juniper trees dotted the tan and deep-red lan…
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