- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
Cherokee Nation citizen Lauren Smith worked two minimum wage jobs in her early adulthood, just to afford a small apartment in Owasso, Okla. She realized she needed a change when she had her son — spending so much time at work meant he would end up “raising himself,” Smith said.
Career development services from Cherokee Nation, including career counseling and help getting her GED, allowed Smith to land a steady job as a receptionist at an Owasso clinic. The work is stable and she enjoys it. She would never have gotten it without that support, she told Tribal Business News.
‘They walked me through everything, and that meant I didn't have to struggle with it on my own while working two jobs and trying to raise a kid,” Smith said. “I didn't have to pay for it, I had good guidance and advice, and now I'm doing work I never thought I'd be able to do.”
But future Native jobseekers could find that kind of support harder to access under the Trump administration’s proposed budget that Congress will be debating this week. Cherokee Nation, like many tribes and Native-serving organizations, depends on funding from the Department of Labor's Division of Indian and Native American Programs (DINAP), which administers the native American Employment and Training Program under Section 166 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
The administration’s budget calls for eliminating Section 166 and folding its funding into a new “Make America Skilled Again” (MASA) block grant. The proposal would consolidate 11 federal workforce programs — including those targeted to youth, dislocated workers, and Native Americans — into a single pool of funds controlled by the states.
While the programs wouldn't be eliminated entirely, critics argue that folding Native-specific funding into state-controlled block grants would effectively end dedicated tribal workforce services and remove culturally competent support.
Over the past five years, DINAP has funded roughly 40,000 to 50,000 participants annually, with combined adult and youth awards rising from approximately $58 million in 2020 to over $73 million in 2025, according to the program’s website. Under the MASA proposal, total WIOA funding would shrink from $3.9 billion to $2.97 billion, slashing nearly $1 billion in workforce investments, according to the National Association of Workforce Boards.
The shift would place Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian jobseekers into the same state-run programs as all other workers — a move that could sideline tribal perspectives and strip away culturally responsive support, according to Joseph Quintana (Kewa Pueblo), executive director of California-based workforce nonprofit Native Development Network.
“This pulls our chair away from the table,” Quintana told Tribal Business News. “Having a direct voice, like DINAP in the Department of Labor, gives us access to people who can address our concerns.”
The Native Professional Advancement Center in New Mexico is another organization fighting the proposal.
“This isn't just policy — it's an attack on tribal sovereignty and Native self-determination,” Darius Lee Smith, executive director of NPAC, said in a statement. “For over 60 years, we've built culturally grounded pathways to education and employment. Losing these programs puts everything we've worked for at risk.”
Section 166’s core strength lies in its flexibility and cultural competence, according to former DINAP Division Chief Athena Brown. Division staff understand specific barriers that face Native jobseekers, such as extremely rural reservations, limited access to off-reservation resources like job centers and effects from poverty, such as lack of transportation. Broader state programs are not always prepared to handle those issues, and complete tribal-centered career training at “significantly lower” rates than tribe-run programs, Brown said.
“Tribes can tailor the services they're providing to the needs of the people they're serving,” Brown said. “Grants are administered in a way that not only meets regulatory requirements under WIOA, but are provided in ways that are consistent with the cultural values and beliefs of the people they are designed to serve.”
Trump’s federal workforce cuts have left DINAP with just three employees. The budget proposal, if enacted, would eliminate the division entirely, and take “years of experience, trust, and understanding” with it, Brown said.
Without a dedicated federal unit, tribes may also lose the consultation channels provided by the Native American Employment and Training Council (NAETC), which advises the secretary on the program’s operation and performance measures.
“This proposal disregards decades of work by tribes, subject matter experts including educators, tribal business experts, and others,” Brown said. “This proposal is also an affront to tribes and circumvents the U.S. Constitution, treaties, statutes, executive orders, and judicial decisions that have long held that the United States shall maintain a government-to-government relationship with federally recognized tribes.”
If the funding disappears, Brown recommends proactive steps for tribes: “I would encourage the tribes and nonprofit Native organizations to continue to work closely with the tribal business communities and to ensure that partnerships are continued, to include the states in these endeavors,” Brown said. "Make sure that you have a seat at the table with the state-funded entities so that the tribal communities have a voice in how their communities are served.”
Establishing or reinforcing memoranda of understanding with one-stop centers could help safeguard access, but won’t replace the cultural expertise lost when DINAP’s central office is dissolved, Brown said.
The changes would affect a population already facing high unemployment. For Native Americans living in the Southern California urban areas that Quintana's Native Development Network serves, unemployment stands between 9% and 11% — roughly three times the wider unemployment in the same areas. Unemployment is worse on reservations, which average 10.5% but can reach up to 80%, according to a 2024 report by the Ballard School for Social Impact.
States must consider everyone when developing their programs and that could mean specific Native needs being glossed over, Quintana said. Many Natives entering the workforce at later ages may rely on high school degrees, since rates of higher education attendance and graduation are lower than other demographics. Many may need more practical support, such as getting a suit for a job interview.
“We don't want to create another access obstacle to dollars for these workers,” Quintana said. “When addressing these challenges, having the state step in poses another risk to our community members who lack education or opportunities and training.”
The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal is scheduled to go before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for markup on Monday, July 21 at 5 p.m. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the bill on Thursday, July 24 at 10 a.m.
Quintana, Brown, and others hope lawmakers will push back against the proposal and preserve DINAP’s dedicated funding and infrastructure — especially as economic uncertainty looms.
Legislators and tribal leaders need to weigh whether those direct allocations — and DINAP’s dedicated staff — can be replicated through state infrastructure without compromising the program’s reach or cultural relevance, Quintana said.
“Consolidating Native workforce funding under state systems erases decades of hard-won progress and ignores the unique needs of tribal nations,” Quintana said. “We don’t just want jobs, we need stable careers, rooted in education, self-determination, and cultural relevance.”
Smith, when told of the potential threat to the career support that helped her get her current job, expressed a similar concern.
“You can't live on minimum wage, and I think if any of these go away or have less resources, you're going to see a lot more Natives trying to do so anyway,” Smith said. “They need to have people out there who can talk to tribal folks and know what they're dealing with who can provide this support. I think we're in a lot of trouble without it.”
Brian Edwards contributed reporting.
