\u201cWhen we started hearing about the layoffs and the freezes, you were the first one to stand up for Indian Country,\u201d he told Kennedy, of his move to spare the federal agency charged with providing health care to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.<\/p>\n
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But Nygren and other Navajo leaders said cuts to federal health programs outside the Indian Health Service are hurting Native Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re disrupting real lives,\u201d Cherilyn Yazzie, a Navajo council delegate, told KFF Health News as she described recent changes.<\/p>\n
Kennedy has repeatedly promised to prioritize Native Americans\u2019 health care. But Native Americans and health officials across tribal nations say those overtures are overshadowed by the collateral harm from massive cuts to federal health programs.<\/p>\n
The sweeping reductions have resulted in cuts to funding directed toward or disproportionately relied on by Native Americans. Staffing cuts, tribal health leaders say, have led to missing data and poor communication.<\/p>\n
The Indian Health Service provides free health care at its hospitals and clinics to Native Americans, who, as a group, face higher rates of chronic diseases and die younger than<\/a> other populations. Those inequities are attributable to centuries of systemic discrimination<\/a>. But many tribal members don\u2019t live near an agency clinic or hospital. And those who do may face limited services,<\/a> chronic underfunding, and staffing shortages. To work around those gaps<\/a>, health organizations lean on other federally funded programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere may be a misconception among some of the administration that Indian Country is only impacted by changes to the Indian Health Service,\u201d said Liz Malerba, a tribal policy expert and citizen of the Mohegan Tribe. \u201cThat\u2019s simply not true.\u201d<\/p>\n Tribes have lost more than $6 million in grants from other HHS agencies, the National Indian Health Board wrote in a May letter<\/a> to Kennedy.<\/p>\n Janet Alkire, chairperson of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, said at a May 14 Senate committee hearing<\/a> that those grants paid for community health workers, vaccinations, data modernization, and other public health efforts.<\/p>\n The government also canceled funding for programs it said violated President Donald Trump\u2019s ban on \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion,\u201d including one aimed at Native American youth<\/a> interested in science and medicine and another that helps several tribes increase access to healthy food<\/a> \u2014 something Kennedy has said he wants to prioritize.<\/p>\n Tribal health officials say slashed federal staffing has made it harder to get technical support and money for federally funded health projects they run.<\/p>\n The firings have cut or eliminated staff at programs related to preventing overdoses<\/a> in tribal communities, using traditional food and medicine<\/a> to fight chronic disease, and helping low-income people afford to heat and cool their homes<\/a> through the Low Income Home Energy Program.<\/p>\n The Oglala Sioux Tribe is in South Dakota, where Native Americans who struggle to heat their homes have died of hypothermia. Through mid-May the tribe hadn\u2019t been able to access its latest funding installment from the energy program, said John Long, the tribe\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute at the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the government has sent her organization incomplete health data. That includes statistics about Native Americans at risk for suicide and substance use disorders, which the center uses to shape public health policy and programs.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going to die because we don\u2019t have access to the data,\u201d Echo-Hawk said.<\/p>\n Her organization is also having trouble administering a $2.2 million federal grant, she said, because the agency handling the money fired staffers she worked with. The grant pays for public health initiatives such as smoking cessation and vaccinations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very confusing to say chronic disease prevention is the No. 1 priority and then to eradicate the support needed to address chronic disease prevention in Indian Country,\u201d Echo-Hawk said.<\/p>\n HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy aims to combat chronic diseases and improve well-being among Native Americans \u201cthrough culturally relevant, community-driven solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Hilliard did not respond to questions about Kennedy\u2019s specific plans for Native American health or concerns about existing and proposed funding and staffing changes.<\/p>\n As Kennedy hiked alongside Navajo Nation leaders, KFF Health News asked how he would improve and protect access to care for tribal communities amid rollbacks within his department.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Kennedy responded. \u201cMaking sure that all the cuts do not affect these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy has said his focus on Native American health stems from personal and family experience, something he repeated to Navajo leadership. As an attorney, he worked with tribes on environmental health lawsuits. He also served as an editor at ICT, a major Native American news outlet.<\/p>\n The secretary said he was also influenced by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a child.<\/p>\n \u201cThey thought that America would never live up to its moral authority and its role as an exemplary nation around the world if we didn\u2019t first look back and remediate or mitigate the original sin of the American experience \u2014 the genocide of the Native people,\u201d Kennedy said during his visit.<\/p>\n Some tribal leaders say the recent cuts, and the way the administration made them, violate treaties in which the U.S. promised to provide for the health and welfare of tribes in return for taking their land.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have not been consulted with meaningfully on any of these actions,\u201d said Malerba, director of policy and legislative affairs for the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, which advocates for tribes from Texas to Maine.<\/p>\n Alkire said at the congressional hearing that many Native American health organizations sent letters to the health department asking for consultations but none has received a response.<\/p>\n Tribal consultation is legally required when federal agencies pursue changes that would have a significant impact on tribal nations.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people,\u201d Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at the hearing. \u201cIt is also a question of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Tribal leaders are worried about additional proposed changes, including funding cuts to the Indian Health Service<\/a> and a reorganization<\/a> of the federal health department.<\/p>\n Esther Lucero, president and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the maneuvers remind her of the level of daily uncertainty she felt working through the covid-19 pandemic \u2014 only with fewer resources.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ability to serve those who are desperately in need feels at risk,\u201d Lucero said.<\/p>\n Among the most pressing concerns<\/a> are congressional Republicans\u2019 proposed cuts to Medicaid, the primary government health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.<\/p>\n About 30%<\/a> of Native American and Alaska Native people younger than 65 are enrolled in Medicaid, and the program helps keep Indian Health Service and other tribal health facilities afloat.<\/p>\n Native American adults would be exempt<\/a> from Medicaid work requirements approved by House Republicans last month.<\/p>\n After Kennedy summited Window Rock with Navajo Nation leaders, the tribe held a prayer ceremony in which they blessed him in Din\u00e9 Bizaad, the Navajo language. President Nygren stressed how meaningful it was for the country\u2019s health secretary to walk alongside them. He also reminded Kennedy of the list of priorities they\u2019d discussed. That included maintaining the federal low-income energy assistance program.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to reestablishing and protecting some of the services that your department provides,\u201d Nygren said.<\/p>\n As of mid-May, the Trump administration had proposed eliminating<\/a> the energy program, which remains unstaffed.<\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/qopreliz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IHS-RFK_05-scaled.jpg\")
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