Civil Rights Commission report faults feds' lack of funding treaty obligations again

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report on the federal government’s continuing lack of commitment to fund programs for Native Americans in December, calling the current funding “grossly inadequate” to meet the most basic needs the federal government is obligated to provide.

The report, titled “Broken Promises,” updates the commission’s 2003 report “A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country.”

“The crisis the commission found in 2003 remains, and the federal government continues to fail to support adequately the social and economic well-being of Native Americans,” says Commission Chair Catherine E. Lhamon. “Due at least in part to the failure of the federal government adequately to address the well-being of Native Americans over the last two centuries, Native Americans continue to rank near the bottom of all Americans in health, education and employment outcomes.”

“Unfortunately, the current study reflects that the efforts undertaken by the federal government in the past 15 years have resulted in only minor improvements, at best, for the Native population as a whole,” states the executive summary included in “Broken Promises.” “And, in some respects, the U.S. government has backslid in its treatment of Native Americans.”

Both reports evaluated budgets and spending of the more than 20 federal agencies that sponsor Native American programs, and both reports found the federal government sorely lacking in living up to its trust responsibilities.

In fiscal year 2019, the federal government requested $20 billion for programs serving Tribes and Native American communities, which was a decrease from fiscal year 2018’s $22 billion enacted funding level and a slight increase from the fiscal year 2017 enacted funding level of $19.9 billion.

The current report also found that the overall budget of the Indian Health Service meets slightly more than 50 percent of the health care needs of Native Americans who suffer “striking health deficiencies and disparities.”

“The crisis the commission found in 2003 remains, and the federal government continues to fail to support adequately the social and economic well-being of Native Americans,” says Commission Chair Catherine E. Lhamon in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. “Due at least in part to the failure of the federal government adequately to address the well-being of Native Americans over the last two centuries, Native Americans continue to rank near the bottom of all Americans in health, education and employment outcomes.”

According to the report, Native Americans are more likely to live in poverty, be unemployed, experience rape or abuse, and be killed by police than any other ethnic or racial group. In addition, Native Americans have 1.6 times the infant mortality rate of non-Hispanic whites and the life expectancy of Native peoples is 5.5 years less than the national average.

The commission’s key findings, however, did not all revolve around funding shortfalls. It also found that federal programs for Native Americans are sometimes inefficiently structured and that the federal government fails to keep accurate, consistent and comprehensive records of federal spending on Native American programs “making monitoring of federal spending to meet its trust responsibility difficult.”

The commission encouraged Congress to honor the federal government’s trust obligations outlined in 375 treaties by passing a spending package that fully addresses the unmet needs in Indian Country and targeting the most critical needs for immediate investment.

“This spending package should also address the funding necessary for the buildout of unmet essential utilities and core infrastructure needs in Indian Country, such as electricity, water, telecommunications and roads,” Lhamon said. “The federal government should provide steady, equitable and non-discretionary funding directly to Tribal nations to support the public safety, health care, education, housing and economic development of Native Tribes and people.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent bipartisan agency established by Congress in 1957 that is, in part, directed to study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection. The update of “A Quiet Crisis” was requested by 20 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2015.

In 2016, commission members visited the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes in Wyoming, the Quinault Reservation in Washington state, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, as well as accepted comments from Tribes, Tribal leaders and other interested parties.

According to the 2016 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 5.5 million people identify as Native American or Alaska Native either alone or in combination with one or more other races.

“The United States expects all nations to live up to their treaty obligations,” Lhamon said. “It should live up to its own.”

The full 314-page report, which addresses criminal justice and public safety, health care, education, housing and economic development in dedicated chapters, can be found at the commission’s website at www.usccr.gov.