Native Americans are feeling the brunt of the government shutdown

The media seems to be doing a good job of keeping the public abreast of the government shutdown drama in Washington. Strategizing by Pelosi, Schumer  is getting good coverage as is Trump’s stone faced non- strategy.. But out in the hinterlands, where the impact of this shutdown is taking a toll, coverage has been skimpy at best. Here from the New York Times is an article explaining how the Trump shutdown has already become onerous for Native American tribes and promises to get much worse if the shutdown persists
 Because a  majority of the  staff at the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been furloughed, regular department services  have been either scaled back or shutdown completely.This curtailment of programs means that the federal funds intended for tribes now are not being  distributed.. Reverberations from lack of funding have impacted tribes all around the country.
 In northern Michigan, a tribe of Chippewa Indians in the Upper Peninsula faces significant cutbacks to tribal health care services. In the southwest, food programs now face the likelihood of being shut down, raising the real threat of hunger lin the middle of winter for the Navajo Nation. Tribes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oklahoma report significant problems in the delivery of food and health care services.
The partial shutdown of the federal government was supposed to focus on non-essential government services. What was the criteria for funding certain programs and not others?  Why  was the Bureau of Indian Affairs included in the non-essential category?  The Bureau funds basic  health and food programs for 1.9 million Native Americans in this country. It certainly should have been deemed an essential service. . So put this Trump fiasco down as causing more broken promises to the Native American tribes. Trump’ hubris and desperate pandering to his base is creating real suffering  which  sadly is going pretty much unnoticed by most people.. The media needs to do a better job of letting all Americans know that the human costs of this shutdown are real and substantive. They also need to keep hammering home the point that Trump, goaded on by talk radio, is blackmailing Congress simply not to lose face with his base. What a despicable human being he is.
Let’s call our Dem Senators today, Peters and Stabenow, and make sure that they are aware of the breakdown in services to the Chippewa Indian tribe in Sault St. Marie. Explain that it is their job to see that if necessary, emergency funds (either federal or state) need to be directed to the tribe if the shutdown continues. It is their job to do whatever it takes to see that this tribe receives help, They should be in contact with Gov. Whitmer as well. Their numbers are below.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/us/native-american-government-shutdown.html