WASHINGTON, D.C. — “We should be having a party. Instead we are protesting.”

With those words, a small yet feisty group of former employees of the Department of the Interior gathered in the nation’s capital on a cold Monday afternoon. But they did not show up to 1849 C Street NW to celebrate the 176th anniversary of the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities in Indian Country.

No, more than a century after the agency’s establishment on March 3, 1849, the crowd came to ask recently-confirmed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum a simple question. Why have so many of their former colleagues lost their jobs since Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States?

And more specifically, what is happening to employees that are supposed to help the federal government meet its trust and treaty obligations to tribes and their communities? In the last couple of weeks, Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas has lost 27 percent of its staff. At the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in New Mexico, 24 percent of the workforce has been terminated.

“These actions, taken mid-year, are causing nothing but chaos on our campuses,” Ahniwake Rose, the Chief Executive Officer of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, said in Congressional testimony last Thursday.

“As students struggle for answers on how these impacts will impact their graduation, they worry about whether they’ll be able to continue their coursework past this spring, and they lose trusted coaches mid-season,” Rose told key lawmakers on the final day of an unprecedented three days of Indian Country hearings.

“They deserve better,” Rose asserted.

But Burgum, a former two-term governor of North Dakota, has not publicly accounted for the mass firings, which coincidentally began right after he addressed a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. on February 12. Despite speaking to tribal leaders for 45 minutes, he did not offer any specifics about his plans for advancing the nation-to-nation relationship that is at the heart of government’s legal and political obligations.

So instead of a birthday cake, Jane Lyder, a longtime former Interior employee who helped organize the protest on Monday, brought a bullhorn. With the iconic Washington Monument in the distance behind her, she led the crowd in pressing Burgum to explain exactly what’s going on at the building that houses the central offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (BTFA).

“Mr. Secretary, why are you silent?” asked Lyder, a question that was asked repeatedly from a small park across from the C Street entrance of Interior’s headquarters.

Lyder told Indianz.Com that she worked at Interior for 36 years, serving in a number of leadership roles and in the department’s legislative office, reporting to Secretary Burgum’s predecessors in Republican and Democratic administrations alike. She retired from government service more than a decade ago, so she was not among those who have lost their jobs in President Trump’s efforts to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce.

But as she held a sign that read “Tribes” — one of Interior’s primary responsibilities — she continued to speak out. She said more than 2,200 employees have been fired throughout the department, though exact figures about cuts from the BIA, the BIE and the BTFA are not readily available.

“It’s been hard to get numbers,” Lyder said in reference to the employees that serve tribes and their communities.

During three days of testimony to the House Committee on Appropriations last week, tribes and their advocates started to provide an on-the-ground assessment of the cuts and their impact on Indian Country, which has long suffered from underfunding. Every program — from education to health care to public safety — is at risk, witnesses said.

“A reduction in force is an abrogation of treaty and trust obligations and further reduces our already deficit capacity to provide needed services to our tribal citizens,” Cheyenne Robinson, the Secretary of the Omaha Tribe, said last Wednesday.

Even energy development — a stated priority of President Trump — faces setbacks, according to Mike Natchees, a council member for the Ute Tribe. He informed the committee that Interior employees who ensure that oil and gas production occurs on federal and Indian lands are among those who have lost their jobs.

“Just this past week, we lost seven of the eight people who help us secure those federal approvals at the agency level,” Natchees said last Tuesday. “We need those employees back immediately.”

“Our tribal energy production cannot afford to become an unintended consequence of national budget cuts and employee terminations,” said Natchees, who noted that oil and gas development on his tribe’s reservation in Utah generates $643 billion in revenues for local, state and federal governments, along with creating and supporting 8,300 jobs.

“Shutting down the key essential workers that are necessary to maintain and develop our energy resources shuts down the United States’ and Utah’s ability to maintain energy dominance,” Natchees added.

“This is not a tribal issue, it is an American issue, and the lack of adequate staffing and budgetary support undermines national security interests and impacts the environment by pushing that energy development to other areas of the world,” Natchees said.

When asked to confirm the number of BIA, BIE and BTFA employees who have been impacted by terminations, reductions in force and other executive actions since Donald Trump took office on January 20, the Department of the Interior said it could not provide an answer.

“The Department does not have a comment on personnel,” J. Elizabeth Peace, a Senior Public Affairs Specialist who is working for Secretary Burgum, told Indianz.Com on Monday.

Peace also did not provide an answer when asked whether Burgum, who has said his experiences with tribes in North Dakota prepared him for the presidential cabinet, intends to protect Indian Country employees — a request that was made repeatedly at the Congressional hearings last week.

“Indian programs must be exempt from these firings,” asserted Janet Alkire, the Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, one of the Indian nations with homelands in North Dakota.

Alkire previously welcomed Burgum’s presence at Interior, citing his efforts to improve relationships with tribal governments by keeping in regular contact with them. In contrast, she described the terminations and reductions in force as “reckless” and called on Congress to “stop the irresponsible management of the United States’ treaty and trust responsibilities.”

Employees who work on Indian programs “touch every part of our lives and every tribal project,” Alkire noted. “They are already underfunded and understaffed,” she said last Tuesday.

“Each employee is already doing the work of four people,” Alkire said. “Losing just one federal employee can bring our government to a halt or threaten life-saving health care.”

“We agree that reforms are needed, but firing the staff that serve our tribes without any consultation or plan violates the United States’ treaty and trust responsibilities,” Alkire said.

Indianz.Com also asked the BIA’s Office of Public Affairs to confirm the number of Indian Country employees that have lost their jobs. Like Burgum’s spokesperson, the agency said it could not provide a direct answer.

“The Department of the Interior reaffirms its unwavering commitment to strengthening government-to-government relationships with American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people,” a reply from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs read.

“We do not have a comment on personnel matters, however, Interior will continue to uphold federal responsibilities to tribal communities as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management,” the BIA said in touting Trump’s agenda.

The president’s priorities include the Department of Government Efficiency, a controversial initiative that’s being led by Elon Musk, a foreign-born business executive whose record and background were not examined by Congress in connection with his arrival in the nation’s capital.

As Indianz.Com initially reported on February 20, the doge.gov website contains little concrete information about the changes in workforce underway at the Office of Indian Affairs, which encompasses the BIA, the BIE and the BTFA. But tribes and their advocates repeatedly told Congress of the negative impacts during the hearings last week.

“The Department of Government Efficiency is causing a lot of havoc and issues with our programs, with our Indian programs,” Ryman LeBeau, the Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said in addressing employees terminations and reductions in force (RIFs).

“The United States fulfills its trust and treaty obligations through both direct delivery of tribal programs and services and through provision of federal funding to tribal nations and tribal organizations serving tribal nations,” continued LeBeau.

“So when they do these cuts, these RIFs, these layoffs of probationary employees — whether it’s at Haskell Indian Nations University, or at SIPI, or anywhere in the BIE or BIA — that is creating issues with the federal government in carrying out its treaty and trust responsibility to tribes,” LeBeau said last Tuesday.

But tribes aren’t alone in learning about and reacting to the Trump administration’s actions — after they’ve already taken place. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose leadership position on the House Committee on Appropriations puts him in charge of the bill that funds nearly every Indian Country program, said he’s had to contact Interior to figure out what’s happening.

“I understand the concern that is out there — and rightful concern,” Simpson said after particularly fiery testimony from Frank Star Comes Out, the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, about violations of the federal government’s responsibilities in Indian Country.

“We’re trying to make sure that it doesn’t impact Indian Country,” Simpson said of Trump’s efforts to freeze the flow of federal funds and reduce the size of the government workforce. “So we’re going to do all we can to make sure that happens.”

However, Simpson did not inspire confidence in the Trump administration when he acknowledged that Indian Country employees have indeed lost their jobs — and that he anticipates even more reductions due to resignations and retirements being offered to federal workers. He also confirmed that some funds already promised to tribes under two acts of Congress are still frozen.

“I came here to speak on treaties, because treaties … are the supreme law of the land,” Star Comes Out said last Tuesday.

“And today, in this current administration, I believe those treaties are being violated and challenged,” continued Star Comes Out, a veteran of the U.S. armed forces.

“And I’d like to see that change,” said Star Comes Out, who is in his second term as leader of his tribe, based on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation who is the first Native person to lead the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, noted that the legislative panel in charge of federal funding bills has “made  significant progress” in fulfilling Indian Country’s needs. But his assessment of his dealings with the Trump team wasn’t exactly promising either, though he chalked it up to a lack of education about the first Americans.

“I have been in contact … with agencies and the White House to ensure our responsibilities to tribes are fully understood across all facets of the federal government — and sometimes people just don’t get it,” Cole said last Tuesday.

 ”I mean, they quite often come from places that don’t have a tribal presence, they don’t know much about the issue,” Cole said.

“Again, these are important treaty and trust responsibilities the United States needs to fulfill and our commitment is to work with you and our colleagues across the aisle to make sure that those are kept,” Cole told tribal leaders last week as he vowed to work in a bipartisan fashion with Democratic lawmakers.

Despite the pledge of cooperation, Cole on Monday said he would not accept Democratic efforts to impose conditions on what Trump can and cannot do as the leader of the executive branch of the U.S. government. And while Republicans control both the U.S. House and Representatives and the U.S. Senate, he indicated that he intends to blame Democrats for his party’s inability to come up with an appropriations package that funds the BIA, the BIE and other federal agencies.

“A government shutdown is unacceptable, and Republicans have continually worked in earnest to deliver a deal on full-year appropriations,” Cole said in a statement.

Happy Birthday @Interior! https://t.co/4WForJ433F

— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) March 3, 2025

Congress has until March 14 to avert a shutdown of the federal government, the last of which occurred under President Trump’s watch in 2018 and 2019. The prior shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, having lasted 35 days.

And just like the freeze of federal funds already promised to tribal nations and the downsizing of federal employees that serve Indian Country, tribes and their advocates have made it clear that the trust and treaty obligations cannot be sacrificed yet again.

“Let’s be honest,” Cecilia Fire Thunder, the Chairwoman of the Oglala Lakota Nation Education Coalition, said last Thursday. “The federal government made a promise to Indian Country in exchange for the treaties and trust responsibilities. Tribes provided millions of acres of land, gold, timber, oil, gas and natural resources for promises. One was the obligation to educate our children ”

“We have kept our side of the bargain,” said Fire Thunder, a former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. “We ask that you keep your side of the bargain.”