Indian Country is taking yet another hit as President Donald Trump tries to reduce the size of the federal government despite the trust and treaty obligations owed to tribes and their communities.

The latest disruption arrived over the weekend. And this time, even the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was left confused after being told that a number of its own leases were being terminated on orders from Washington, D.C.

“We were just as blindsided as the tribe,” the BIA’s Eastern Oklahoma Region told Chief Lewis J. Johnson of the Seminole Nation.

According to the region, the General Services Administration (GSA) — an entirely different federal agency — is terminating the lease that the BIA uses to provide services to the Seminole Nation. The property is located in Seminole, Oklahoma, not far from tribal headquarters.

“The Wewoka Agency provides direct services to the Seminole Nation as well as the restricted land owners of the original allottees of the Seminole Nation,” the BIA said in statement posted by Chief Johnson on social media on Monday. “We stand firm in our duty to continue these statutory and Treaty defined obligations.”

“We were just as blindsided as the tribe by the unilateral decision of GSA to terminate the lease of the agency,” the Eastern Oklahoma Region stated.

Elsewhere in Oklahoma, the Osage Nation is also taking a hit. Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said he was informed — on Saturday — that the BIA is losing a lease for a building in Pawhuska that is used to provide services to the tribe.

“I’ve already received a phone call from an employee of the BIA who wanted to know what this means for their employment,” Standing Bear said on social media later in the day. “At this time, with the information in front of me, I do not know.”

“We have been anticipating this and will continue working daily to mitigate damage and alleviate the anxiety federal cuts are causing Osage Nation, our people, and our communities,” Standing Bear added.

But the disruptions affecting the Seminole Nation and the Osage Nation are far from unique. The Department of Government Efficiency, one of President Trump’s many controversial initiatives, has posted at least 20 BIA locations where leases are being terminated.

The BIA locations are posted on the “Savings” page on doge.gov. Under the heading of “Real Estate,” the Trump administration claims it has terminated nearly 750 leases so far, totaling more than 9.5 million square-feet of space, and leading to about $468 million in recovered costs as of Wednesday afternoon.

And while Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the cabinet-level official who oversees the BIA, has not spoken directly to the lease terminations, he is embracing DOGE. In a post on social media on Tuesday, he indicated he was fully on board with the government efficiency actions.

“Our team at @Interior is working with DOGE to streamline government, eliminate waste, and upgrade our critical infrastructure,” Burgum wrote in the post, which came only a day after the Department of the Interior celebrated its 176th anniversary as the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations.

“This includes reviewing every one of the 36,000 Department of the Interior Grants & Contracts for waste, fraud, and abuse,” Burgum added.

Our team at @Interior is working with DOGE to streamline government, eliminate waste, and upgrade our critical infrastructure. This includes reviewing every one of the 36,000 Department of the Interior Grants & Contracts for waste, fraud, and abuse.

— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) March 5, 2025

But the supposed savings at BIA are small in comparison to the overall effort. The annual lease at the Wewoka Agency in Seminole only comes to $184,770, according to information posed on doge.gov.

The Osage Agency in Pawhuska is similarly small. According to doge.gov, terminating the lease only saves $166,134 a year.

Elsewhere in Oklahoma, doge.gov is taking credit for terminating a small BIA lease in Carnegie that only costs $2,798 a year. Another BIA location in Watonga is only worth $38,573 annually, according to the website.

The agency’s only large ticket item currently up for termination is connected to a $1,784,239 lease in Phoenix, Arizona. According to a list created by Democratic lawmakers, the location is the home of the BIA’s Western Region, which serves more than 55 tribes in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

“The impact on Bureau of Indian Affairs offices will be especially devastating,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, said in a news release on February 28.

“These offices are already underfunded, understaffed, and stretched beyond capacity, struggling to meet the needs of Tribal communities who face systemic barriers to federal resources,” said Huffman. “Closing these offices will further erode services like public safety, economic development, education, and housing assistance—services that Tribal Nations rely on for their well-being and self-determination.”

Additionally, doge.gov currently lists 12 Indian Health Service leases that are slated for termination. They include three locations in Arizona and New Mexico serving the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe — both in terms of citizenship and size of reservation — in the United States.

“Despite our size, we continue to face the same challenges,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told key members of Congress last Wednesday, “as Indian Country continues to struggle with generations of crumbling infrastructure, limited access to health care, underfunded law enforcement and an ongoing fight for clean water.”

“These issues aren’t just numbers in a budget,” Nygren said in testimony to the House Committee on Appropriations, which writes the bills that fund the BIA, the IHS and other federal agencies. “They represent the daily realities of Navajo families and Indian families across Indian Country as well.”

In total, the lease terminations at the 20 BIA locations listed on doge.gov as of March 5 are saving only about $4.35 million in government funds. The IHS terminations total about $1.94 million — with most of that coming from a $1 million lease on the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation.

“I am here to remind — as you’ve heard today — that the federal and government’s trust and treaty responsibilities to the Navajo people are not optional, that they’re not tied to political cycles, and they are promises that must be kept,” Nygren said on February 27.

The BIA and IHS lease terminations are the latest in a series of Trump administration actions that have caused significant uncertainty and confusion in Indian Country. They include the freezing of federal funds already promised to tribes, the terminations and reductions in force of federal employees that serve tribal communities and the cancellations of government contracts that had been awarded to Indian and tribal organizations and businesses.

There’s also been no consultation with tribes since January 20, when Trump was sworn into office as the 47th president of the United States. So some Indian Country leaders have called the actions a violation of the federal government’s legal obligations that are outlined in treaties and numerous federal laws and repeatedly confirmed by court decisions.

“You know, I fought for my country because I believed in my country,” President Frank Star Comes Out of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, a veteran of the U.S. armed forces, told members of Congress last Tuesday.

“Now I’m fighting for my people. And I believe my people need to be heard,” Star Comes Out continued. “What are we going to do about our treaty obligations that are so severely underfunded?”

Tribal leaders also point out that the programs and services provided to their communities have been made in exchange for the hundreds of millions of acres of Indian lands that have been ceded to the U.S. The payments, they argue, have already been made.

 ”We have already paid,” William “Bill” Smith, the chair of the National Indian Health Board, said in Congressional testimony last month. “We have paid and paid and paid.”

“We have paid with our land,” added Smith, a military veteran who also serves as vice president of the Valdez Native Tribe in Alaska. “We have paid with our lives, and we paid the deals. We have given up our lands — and the United States said that they’ll take care of us.”

“The health and the education … paid in full,” Smith told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on February 12.

According to President Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency is led by Elon Musk, a foreign-born business executive whose record and background were not examined by Congress in connection with his arrival and presence in the nation’s capital.

“I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it,” Trump said in in his address to Congress on Tuesday evening.

“Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight,” Trump said to applause at the U.S. Capitol.

“Thank you, Elon,” the president continued. “He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much, we appreciate it.”