A 2023 presidential executive order expanding sovereignty rights for the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes was revoked March 14 by President Donald Trump, putting major tribal projects and policies in Alaska and elsewhere in question.
Executive Order 14112, signed by President Joe Biden during the White House Tribal Nations Summit in early December 2023, sought to give Native Americans more access to federal funding and spending autonomy.
The order was cited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in recognizing expanded tribal involvement in emergency responses and the Environmental Protection Agency in awarding a $15 million grant for five Southeast Alaska composting facilities, as well as other tribal projects ranging from fisheries management to broadband connectivity.
The effects of Trump’s revocation of the order were not immediately clear to tribal leaders.
“We are actively monitoring developments related to this order and will continue to assess its impact,” Dixie Hutchinson, a spokesperson for The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, wrote in an email to the Empire on March 15.
Bryan Newland, assistant secretary for the U.S. Interior for Indian Affairs from 2021 to 2025, told Native News Online on March 15 that “rolling back this executive order increases federal interference with local actions.”
“This executive order was intended to reduce government interference with how tribes spend their money, and to ensure that federal agencies are actually meeting their legal obligations for tribes,” he said. “It made the government more efficient for Indian people.”
Trump’s revocation was among 18 Biden-era orders nixed in an announcement made late in the day March 14, adding to an ongoing massive redefining of the federal government that includes the 78 presidential orders rescinded when Trump took office on Jan. 20.
“I have determined that the following additional rescissions are necessary to advance the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the federal government and unleash the potential of American citizens,” Trump wrote in the presidential action.
Biden’s signing of Executive Order 14112 was hailed as a highlight of the 2023 tribal summit. Among its provisions was creating a one-stop-shop federal funding hub for Native American businesses, called the Tribal Access to Capital Clearinghouse.
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