Native Bidaské: Brookings Report Examines Underinvestment in Indian Country and What Can Be Done

Underinvestment in Indian Country: What Will It Take to Close the Funding Gap?

📅 Friday, August 21
⏰ 12 p.m. ET
📍 Live on Native News Online

Despite unprecedented federal investments in tribal nations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Country continues to face longstanding funding gaps. Now, as pandemic-era funding expires and new federal cuts take effect, tribal communities are facing renewed challenges.

On this episode of Native Bidaské, host Levi Rickert sits down with Robert Maxim of Brookings Metro to discuss a new report, Underinvestment in Indian Country: How Federal and Philanthropic Funding to Native Americans Falls Short, and How to Fix It.

The report, produced by Brookings Metro in partnership with the American Indian College Fund, examines 15 years of federal funding data and asks an important question: Is the United States meeting its trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations?

Rickert and Maxim discuss:
🔹 The long history of underinvestment in Indian Country
🔹 What the end of pandemic-era funding means for tribal programs
🔹 Federal trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations
🔹 Why less than 1% of philanthropic funding reaches Native communities
🔹 The economic benefits of investing in Indian Country
🔹 Why mandatory, reliable federal funding matters
🔹 The need for better and more accessible federal funding data
🔹 How philanthropy can provide more flexible, long-term “patient capital” to tribal communities

Maxim also discusses what policymakers, tribal leaders and philanthropic organizations can do to move Indian Country from temporary investments toward sustained and reliable funding.

Join us LIVE Friday, August 21, at 12 p.m. ET.

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Written by Native News Online