{"id":39036,"date":"2025-08-01T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/trump-administration-delivers-blow-to-native-media\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T10:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:59:19","slug":"trump-administration-delivers-blow-to-native-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/trump-administration-delivers-blow-to-native-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration delivers blow to Native media"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>
\"\u201cNative<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNative America Calling\u201d host Shawn Spruce talks with writer Deborah Jackson Taffa in KUNM\u2019s Albuquerque studio, April 25. (Photo courtesy of Art Hughes)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Across Indian Country, no tradition is as revered or timeless as that of oral narrative. For millennia, Natives conveyed their history, their legends and their values from one generation to the next through the spoken word. With the arrival of radio in the late 19th century, stations soon popped up across the continent, including on Native lands, which over time developed into tribal radio stations that broadcast everything from powwow music to language lessons.<\/p>\n

Now, with the help of a MAGA-compliant Congress, President Donald Trump is dealing a serious financial setback to many of these stations.<\/p>\n

Acting on a rescission request submitted by the Office of Management and Budget in late May, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress agreed to retract $9.4 billion in foreign aid and more than $1 billion in funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB). A document signed by Trump and sent to Congress in early June shows that 22 rescissions were intended to \u201celiminate programs that are antithetical to American interests,\u201d such as funding the World Health Organization and LGBTQI+ activities. \u201cIn addition, Federal spending on CPB subsidizes a public media system that is politically biased and is an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer,\u201d wrote OMB Director Russell Vought.<\/p>\n

In less than three weeks, Republicans pushed through the rescission request, despite pleas from CPB supporters to spare it from the cuts. President Trump signed the bill on Thursday.<\/p>\n

While Trump was quick to celebrate the cuts to \u201catrocious\u201d National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System on his Truth Social account, industry leaders pointed out that the greatest damage will actually hit smaller community stations, particularly those in remote rural areas.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent July 18, after the rescission was announced, NPR\u2019s CEO, Katherine Maher, called the cuts an \u201cirreversible loss\u201d to the public radio system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a station doesn\u2019t survive this sudden turn by Congress, a vital stitch in our American fabric will be gone for good,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A remote yet crucial voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear people talk about local radio, these Alaska bush stations are the real deal,\u201d said Walter Gregg in an email to Buffalo\u2019s Fire regarding the cuts. He\u2019s the general manager of KUHB and KCUK, which are losing virtually all their funding due to the rescission.<\/p>\n

KUHB is the westernmost public radio station in North America, located on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. It also serves the residents of St. George Island, 47 miles southeast. KCUK is located in Chevak, Alaska, with a population of just over 900 people.<\/p>\n

Gregg doesn\u2019t see either as being a typical NPR station. Both are located in Alaska Native villages and are the only ones in these communities. He says they offer some music programming from NPR, including \u201cAll Songs Considered\u201d and \u201cWorld Cafe,\u201d but mostly the stations try to be an immediate resource for their audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cKCUK operates in both the English language and the Cup\u2019ik language,\u201d said Gregg. \u201cKUHB broadcasts everything from school board meetings, City Council meetings and even things like the school Christmas play every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregg said he will soon fly out to Chevak to streamline operations at KCUK, though both it and KUHB\u2019s staff are already down to three people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth stations can hold out for a little while, but eventually without some sort of structured support, the long term outlook is bleak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregg said he\u2019s already begun some fundraising campaigns, as each station was surviving on an annual CPB grant of $200,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will do everything I can to try and not have budgets negatively affect our listening communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another tribal station, KCUW in Pendleton, Oregon, is losing 99% of its federal funding due to the rescission. In a brief call with Buffalo\u2019s Fire, the station\u2019s operations manager, Anson Crane, said the station is adopting a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach in terms of how it will respond.<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019ll be a meeting to discuss the future of the station, which serves the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a statement out online once we know,\u201d he said. Music and talk programming, such as \u201cRez Rock,\u201d \u201cWellbriety\u201d and \u201cNative Jams,\u201d stand to go silent should KCUW close its doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe simply don\u2019t know what\u2019ll happen,\u201d said Crane, indicating he had to get back to the station. \u201cIt\u2019d be nice if we could stay on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broader repercussions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stations like KCUW carry \u201cNational Native News\u201d and \u201cNative America Calling,\u201d award-winning programs that share important news and invite conversations on a wide range of topics relevant to Indian Country. Koahnic Broadcasting produces both. Like the tribal stations, it is bracing for impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 30 years Koahnic has amplified and shared Indigenous news and programming highlighting Native American culture, music, and languages,\u201d CEO Jaclyn Salee wrote in an email. \u201cKoahnic is reviewing all our services to the community and identifying partners that can fill the financial gap whether from our listeners or corporate and private donations, while also identifying cuts that will be needed in FY 26 and 27 with the recent news of the rescission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty percent of Koahnic\u2019s operating budget comes from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, said Salee. She said the reduction will impact its ability to provide local and national news reports \u201cin the manner our audience expects in an ever-evolving media environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salee said that there are more than 60 rural stations that are now at risk of going dark. \u201cThese local stations serve as a community outlet as they share youth and elder traditions and provide the technical infrastructure and means to assure traditions are preserved and shared with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncertainty and concern<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 17, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota issued a press release saying he\u2019d worked out a way to help tribal radio stations by reallocating unused climate change money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased we secured $9.4 million to make certain the dozens of tribal radio stations receiving CPB community service grants across 11 states can continue operating without interruption,\u201d Rounds was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

When asked about how tribal stations and new outlets can access this money, Lydia Hall, a press aide for Rounds, replied in an email that the Bureau of Indian Affairs\u2019 Office of Indigenous Connectivity and Technology will be in charge of the distribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Administration is coordinating with DOI to quickly provide resources and avoid disruptions,\u201d added Hall.<\/p>\n

But in an NPR report, Native Public Media\u2019s CEO, Loris Taylor, described Rounds\u2019s compromise as \u201cstructurally impractical,\u201d saying that climate funds aren\u2019t a dedicated funding source for communication or media services.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, NPM has supported the creation and expansion of Native media across the U.S. It\u2019s developed a network of 57 Native radio stations and four television stations that stand to suffer from the loss of federal money.<\/p>\n

NPM\u2019s Chief Operating Officer, Brian Wadsworth, told Buffalo\u2019s Fire in an email that funding from CPB covers half of its operating budget, which in turn lets it provide one-on-one technical support for 36 tribally-licensed radio stations that are in the Community Service Grant Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout funding from the CPB, we fear a lot of the tribally-licensed radio stations will go dark,\u201d added Wadsworth.<\/p>\n

Wadsworth said NPM doesn\u2019t anticipate cutting staff and is strategizing about how to keep tribal radio stations on the air. He said this could be through fundraising for stations, underwriting opportunities or other revenue diversification strategies.<\/p>\n

NPM said in a July 18 press release that despite the setback, it will immediately begin recovery efforts and rebuild a \u201cstronger, community owned and governed media system.\u201d It also said it would invest in training the next generation of Indigenous media leaders.<\/p>\n

Wadsworth said the 36 tribally-licensed radio stations that are in jeopardy are not just broadcasters, but are trusted community institutions that promote tribal sovereignty, protect Native languages and amplify local voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly, they serve people,\u201d he wrote. \u201cElders who rely on radio as their only media access. Youth who hear Native languages on-air for the first time. Without this support, we risk losing cultural knowledge forever\u2014an outcome that would require far more costly interventions to reverse later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adaptation \u2014 and adoption \u2014 for survival<\/strong><\/p>\n

In anticipation of the loss of federal money, community and NPR member stations in Tampa and Seattle announced record fundraising.<\/p>\n

And NPR\u2019s Maher announced on July 21 that her organization will cut $8 million from its operating budget to provide short-term relief for stations that are struggling following the removal of CPB money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to use the rest of the year to plan for how we bridge what\u2019s to come in order to support and sustain the network for the future,\u201d she told Texas Public Radio.<\/p>\n

While those are bright spots following the rescission, many stations will continue to suffer and weigh cuts to staff, programming and services. And many tribal stations serve Native communities that are economically disadvantaged and less able to donate money to address budget gaps.<\/p>\n

To help alleviate the burden for those stations that will lose a significant chunk of funding, Adopt A Station, an app developed by former NPR employee Alex Curley, lets potential donors search for stations by state. It also lists stations that have lost the majority of their federal funding. This includes many Native-run operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly 10,000 people have visited the site as of this writing and clicked on links nearly 4,000 times,\u201d Curley shared on his LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n

With many stations\u2019 futures uncertain, station managers and other administrators like Gregg of KUHB and KCUK say they\u2019ll continue pushing for support from community members and lawmakers. He told Buffalo\u2019s Fire that he\u2019s reached out to Alaska\u2019s governor and congressional delegation but hasn\u2019t heard anything from them yet. He said that he fears the small Alaska Native communities in the listening area will lose out should the stations go under.<\/p>\n

(Brian Bull (Nez Perce Tribe) Senior Reporter, Location: Eugene, Oregon, Awards: Edward R. Murrow 2025)<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Trump administration delivers blow to Native media<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNative America Calling\u201d host Shawn Spruce talks with writer Deborah Jackson Taffa in KUNM\u2019s Albuquerque studio, April 25. (Photo courtesy of Art Hughes) Across Indian Country, no tradition is as revered or timeless as that of oral narrative. For millennia, Natives conveyed their history, their legends and their values from <\/p>\n

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