Brookings: DOGE canceled $468.7 million in awards to Tribes and Native organizations

The White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) canceled 1,597 grants and contracts affecting Tribes and Native organizations, totaling $468.7 million in de-obligated funding, according to a Brookings Institution analysis published Oct. 16.

The authors, Robert Maxim, Glencora Haskins, Mary Elizabeth Campbell and Ryan Williams, are current or former Brookings Metro researchers. ICT identifies Maxim as Mashpee Wampanoag.

The authors wrote that "Elon Musk and DOGE inflated the headline numbers on federal spending reductions on the official DOGE website," and cross-checked DOGE's self-published figures against USAspending de-obligation data. The data cover the second quarter of fiscal 2025 through the end of fiscal 2026.

The total is roughly 6.5% of all DOGE cuts the authors could confirm. Tribes and Native organizations lost 12.1% of obligated funding under canceled awards, compared with 8.3% for non-Native recipients.

The Environmental Protection Agency funded more than half of the canceled awards to Native and Tribal recipients. The Pollution Control and Abatement category accounted for over 61% of the funding DOGE cut in Indian Country. In 12 states, Tribes and Native nations lost more than half of obligated funding under affected awards. In Oregon, the share topped 90%.

Cuts included a roughly $20 million EPA Community Change award for the Alaska Native village of Kotzebue to build and own two wind turbines. The Chippewa Cree Tribe in Montana lost $6 million meant to buy reservation land for young farmers.

The authors said the figures exclude federal job losses and office closures. They urged Congress to shift more Indian Country funding to formula funding and require agencies to reissue grants when cuts are found illegal.

Maxim told ICT that several cuts "have been found by courts to be illegal" and that "it really does undermine the trust relationship that the federal government has with Indian Country."