Bill John Baker: Food assistance cuts devastate Indian Country

As part of the Farm Bill reauthorization in the House of Representatives, the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding will be substantially cut. This cut is harmful for Cherokee Nation citizens and will hurt Indian Country.

In many homes, food stamps are the only means and access to quality, nutritious foods. A proposed nearly $40 billion cut in SNAP, which funds our state’s food stamp program, will have a dire effect on hundreds of Native families in northeast Oklahoma, harming the health and well-being of many Cherokee citizens. Nationally, those cuts, coupled with the recession and the high unemployment rates in heavily concentrated Native communities, could have a catastrophic impact.

Across Indian Country, 24 percent of Native households receive SNAP benefits, and 27 percent of Native people live below the poverty level, nearly double the national rate. Tribal citizens are more than twice as likely as any other demographic to depend on SNAP assistance to meet basic food needs to feed their families.