Government Shutdown Is a Life or Death Issue for Native Americans: Tribe Chairman
*By Carlo Versano*
For many Americans, the partial shutdown of the federal government is only felt in minor ways, if it all: [overflowing trash cans](https://wtop.com/dc/2019/01/national-park-service-gets-help-with-garbage-cleanup-during-government-shutdown/slide/1/) on the National Mall, or [free entry](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-government-shutdown-travel/index.html) to national parks. For Native Americans, a prolonged shutdown could mean life or death.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the Dept of the Interior, is one federal office considered non-essential as President Trump and Congress fail to reach a deal over a funding impasse. For tribes like the Sault Ste. Marie of Michigan, which are heavily reliant on federal funding thanks to long-ago deals made with the government for services in exchange for land, the results of the shutdown as already devastating.
Aaron Payment, Sault Ste. Marie's chairman, told Cheddar that he's focused on one date: Jan. 15. That's when the tribe's next drawdown of federal funds is scheduled. If that transaction doesn't happen, critical services will become unavailable, he said.
"In the long term, it's going to have a drastic impact," he said, noting that the shutdown, already in day 14, is costing the tribe about $100,000 a day. Eventually, "we won't have access to healthcare," he said. "Our members need prescriptions and medicines that help keep them alive."
For Payment and members of his tribe and others, the situation in Washington is familiar. A 2013 shutdown under President Obama cost Sault Ste. Marie $1 million, he said, and had lasting impacts still felt today. Tribe members were laid off, furloughed, and lost healthcare providers, who pulled out due to the uncertainty of the shutdown. Recruiting health services is one of the most difficult challenges for Indian Country, which has the added disadvantage of being in rural areas without many providers.
Payment stressed that Native Americans were not asking for handouts, or reparations. As far back as the 1800s, tribes sold hundreds of millions of acres of land to the government "for the promise of health, education and social welfare in perpetuity." Those services are now deemed non-essential. And when the shutdown ends, it is not guaranteed that tribes will be reimbursed for the costs they incurred during the closure, the way other federal employees will be.
"We prepaid for everything," Payment said.
"The government is only as good as its word."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/tribe-leader-says-government-shutdown-could-have-drastic-impact).
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