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When Donald Trump took office four years ago, he carried with him a long track record of disparaging Native Americans and clashing with tribes. While tribal nations were initially hopeful they could work with Trump, Indigenous lawyers and tribal officials describe being cast aside by his administration amidst a "total onslaught" of environmental rollbacks, according to a retrospective by High Country News.
The list of decisions and policies impacting Indian Country is long, including failing to provide adequate assistance to tribal nations being disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, illegally shrinking Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and blasting a border wall through burial sites and land sacred to the Tohono O'odham Nation. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez summed it up: "Tribes have been pushed aside by this administration."
The vast majority of these decisions were overseen by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who established a shameful track record of his own, including advancing drilling around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, illegally revoking a tribe's entire reservation in Massachusetts, and threatening to withhold funding for one South Dakota tribe's police force after it instituted checkpoints to evaluate visitors for coronavirus.
“This administration’s record is one of repeated failures for Native communities,” said Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico. “The truth is the White House is actively undermining Tribal sovereignty across the country and mishandling a once-in-a-century pandemic that is disproportionately hurting Native communities.”
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The total onslaught of federal rule rollbacks under environmental laws was like nothing we’ve ever seen. It was dizzying. It resulted in not only a weakening of substantive environmental protection, but was also a real attack on public participation and access to information."
