Inside a 90 -mile rural mile stretch between the Jemez do Leste mountains and the river river banks is the Santa Clara Pueblo Community Library, an anchor for the tribe of New Mexico do Norte that serves.
The internet service throughout Santa Clara Pueblo’s reserve is scarce, tribe governor James Naranjo told NBC News and the resources to expand access to technology and literacy programs to their 1,700 members are already elongated.
Naranjo said the library depends on federal money to build bridges between the tribe and out-of-range services that may be in the cutting block thanks to Trump government cuts.
Pueblo’s was one of more than 100 libraries In tribal lands recognized by the federal government across the country that were notified by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – a small federal agency responsible for funding local libraries and museums across the country – that its appropriate congressional concession had been fired in the middle of the cycle, according to an IMLs.
“IMLS has determined that its concession is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLs program,” said a letter, obtained by NBC News of a tribal writer who received it. “IMLS is reusing its financing allocations in a new direction to promote the president’s agenda.”
The letter was signed by Vice -Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, which President Donald Trump appointed as interim director of the IMLs in March. Days before Sonderling’s appointment, Trump signed an executive order directing the agency and another six to be eliminated to the “maximum extension consistent with the applicable law.” Only Congress holds the legal authority to end the agency.
The order of 14 March has instructed the IMLs – which ensure that sovereign states and tribes can provide free access to numerous services, such as initial literacy resources, braille books, internet access and stem and culture programs – to interrupt all operations, reach the team and provide a report to the Administration office and compliance budget proof.
In a few days, the government’s department of efficiency descended on the 75 -person IMLS team. All except a dozen were placed on administrative license. Then, in early April, Sonderling terminated all IMLs donations except those lost by human error, IMLS gate told NBC News.
The -void door said the donations were closed for evaluation purposes and that some of them would be restored if they aligned with government priorities, but refused to provide details about the timeline and criteria.
Comprehensive concession cancellations were part of a broader effort from the Trump and Elon Musk government’s department of efficiency to dramatically reduce the scope of federal federal spending and ordering mass layoffs in various agencies, including the Education Department, Social Security Management, the Veteran Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The American Library Association and the American Federation of State, Condado and Municipal Employees, the largest union that represents Library employees, sued Sonderling, Trump and Doge to interrupt IMLs dismantling last month.
US district judge Richard Leon granted a temporary restriction order last week that prevents the Trump government from making more IMLS team and subsidies.
An injunction granted on Tuesday in a separate process presented by 21 State General Prosecutors against the Trump administration cemented that IMLs can no longer be reduced, but as disputes continue before a final decision, the future of subsidies is still in the air. And in his 2026 budget sketch, Trump proposed that IMLs entirely.
Tribal leaders fear that this can mean the end of the library in which their constituents trust and the beginning of a very long struggle.
“This is something personal to me,” said American Library Association President Cindy Hohl, a member of the Santee nation South Dakota, who said he canceled his native American basic subsidy.
“As we continue to analyze what is happening in the current government, we need to defend the needs of our sovereign nations,” Hohl said. “We need to hold the federal government responsible for maintaining its responsibility for confidence.”
“Tribal libraries and tribal communities have specific needs to preserve their culture, language, heritage and live as traditional people in our traditional communities,” Hohl added.
Among the initial cuts were four concession programs designed specifically to support library and museum services in native American, native Alaska and native rural communities.
Thousands of kilometers from New Mexico, the only library kilometers from the 68 -person Igiugig Village tribe in southwest Alaska was stripped of the financing based on the purchase of books and supporting its summer reading program. In Juneau, financing for a project dedicated to digitizing and preserving the history of Alaska native was cut. Throughout the Indian country, the federal dollars that funded the salaries of the librarian and the tribal coordinator dried, putting the jobs and programs they run at risk.
“It’s unfortunate that these cuts are all over the country and are hurting our children,” said Naranjo. “You know, you’re hurting our birth. It’s hurting our general community. Yes, $ 10,000 may be a small amount for others, but it’s a huge amount for us.”
Santa Clara Pueblo received $ 10,000 last year through the Basic Grants Services program of American Library Services, designed to provide small native and indigenous communities and difficult to achieve access to financing that meets the individual needs of each tribe. In the absence of subsidies that were promised, Naranjo and tribal leaders across the country may have to make difficult decisions to maintain their local libraries and museums to light.
“Our library is our safe,” said Charles Suazo, Lieutenant -Governor of Santa Clara, who has acted as Library coordinator, a position made possible by IMLS grants money and is now at risk unless the tribe dives in other areas of his budget to support the salary. “He keeps our traditional language, some old photos, some relics of the past. … Without that, everything that could be lost.”
Santa Clara Pueblo and Ohkay Owinge Pueblo, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, share Tewa’s traditional language, which is considered threatened by native languages. A project funded by IMLS at the P’oe Tsawa community library in Ohkay Owinge teaches Tewa to young tribals in an effort to preserve it, but may be in the cutting block if the concession money is not fully restored.
“These are really critical services,” said Lieutenant -Governor of Ohkay Owingh, Matthew Martinez. “I mean, our library physically is at the center of our tribal community in rural northern New Mexico.”
The IMLs, created in 1996 and that Trump himself reaunched in 2018, last year announced $ 5.9 million in subsidies in 173 total subsidies granted to American and indigenous native tribes, according to an agency statement. Congress appropriated US $ 294.8 million for the agency in 2024.
If the president has the authority to interrupt the flow of the federal dollars that Congress has appropriated, and the IMLs already granted is at the center of the appeals, some tribal leaders and concession managers They are doing Sonderling in the hope of a life line for their community service projects.
The Makah tribe, in Neah Bay, Washington, houses the Makah Cultural and Research Center, which can be left on the large parts of the US $ 149,777 library enhancement. Donation funds had not been reimbursed in full by the IMLs when the concession was closed in the middle of its life cycle last month, according to Janine Ledford, executive director of Makah Cultural and Research Center.
“This project has trained individuals on their journey towards the good -to be in response to an alarming opioid epidemic in the Makah reserve,” Ledford wrote in a letter of appeal sent to Sonderling on May 7 and shared with NBC News. “MCRC has been open since 1979 and has never received any federal prize offered, accepted and then revoked.”
Tribal leaders said the violation of contracts between the federal government and the sovereign tribal nations opens centenary wounds.
“If you look at history, the federal government, you know, put our parents and grandparents in boarding schools. The language has not been taught,” said Martinez, the governor of Ohkay Owinge. “We were punished for talking [our] Language, then we build impulse to privilege the use of language and incorporate it into everything we do. ”