Tribes Question Kennedy’s Promise To Protect Them From Health Cuts

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly pledged to protect and improve health services for Native Americans — whether speaking during his late-January Senate confirmation hearing or an April trip to Arizona, where he met with tribal leaders.

In some ways, he has.

When layoffs were set to hit the Indian Health Service — the federal agency responsible for providing health care to Native Americans and Alaska Natives — Kennedy’s department rescinded the actions hours later.

In April, while visiting Arizona’s Navajo Nation, Kennedy told KFF Health News he was making sure broader budget cuts and layoffs at HHS do not affect Native American communities.

But tribal leaders expressed skepticism. They said they’ve already seen fallout from the sweeping reorganization across federal health agencies. Public health data is incomplete and agency communication has become less reliable. Tribes have also lost at least $6 million in grants from other HHS agencies, according to a letter the National Indian Health Board sent to Kennedy in May.

“There may be a misconception among some of the administration that Indian Country is only impacted by changes to the Indian Health Service,” said Liz Malerba, a tribal policy expert and citizen of the Mohegan Tribe. “That’s simply not true.”

Native Americans face higher rates of chronic diseases and die younger than other populations. Those inequities stem from centuries of systemic discrimination. The Indian Health Service has been chronically underfunded and understaffed, leading to gaps in care.

Janet Alkire, chairperson of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, said during a May Senate hearing that the canceled grants paid for community health workers, vaccinations, data modernization, and other public health efforts.

Other programs — including ones aimed at Native American youth interested in science and medicine and increasing access to healthy foods — were slashed after the government said they violated the Trump administration’s ban on “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Native leaders and organizations have requested tribal consultation, a legal process required when federal agencies consider changes that would affect tribal nations. Alkire and other tribal leaders at the Senate committee hearing said federal officials had not responded.

“This is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at the hearing. “It is also a question of the law.”