Trump cuts funding to tribal libraries, turns agency focus to 'American exceptionalism'

Yahoo

04-04-2025

Donovan Carr was excited to start making improvements to the small network of libraries he manages on the Navajo Nation. He wrote a grant proposal to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a small federal agency that provides funding for museums, aquariums, botanical gardens and libraries.
Carr said he wanted to create a digital archive, train his small staff and make some other improvements with a $150,000 tribal library enhancement grant.
But the Navajo Nation Library, which has just three physical locations — in Window Rock and Kayenta, Arizona and Torreon, New Mexico — to serve a tribal nation the size of West Virginia, may never see those dollars. The tiny agency that provides much-needed resources to tribal museums and libraries is one of the latest to be led to the federal chopping block, imperiling programs ranging from reading tutoring services to upgrading internet and book search technologies.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order March 14 directing the dismantling of the institute, known as IMLS, and six other small agencies that he deemed "unnecessary." On March 31, Trump's newly installed director placed all of its 75 employees on administrative leave, according to the labor union that represents them.
In addition, all grant processing has ceased putting millions of dollars meant to support libraries and museums out of the reach of the librarians and museum officials who depend on the grants to hire staff, buy new computers, offer literacy education or keep bookshelves full.
The move was met with outrage and grief from tribal librarians, members of Congress and other stakeholders, some of whom see this and other Trump administration moves to eliminate funding and programs serving Indian Country as a direct attack on tribal nations and cultures.
Congress created the IMLS in 1996, merging the Institute of Museum Services with the Library Programs Office of the Department of Education.
The small agency has a budget of $280 million and 75 employees to disburse funding to museums, libraries and archives. The IMLS is the largest source of funding for these institutions, and serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia, tribes, U.S. territories and Freely Associated States.
The IMLS distributes its library funding directly to states, which determine where to appropriate resources, and to individual institutions.
Trump signed the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018 into law in 2018. The bill reauthorized the agency and provided new authority, including supporting training for museum, library and information professionals.
But after the executive order and subsequent installation of a new acting director, the small staff and the libraries and museums the agency served saw the writing on the wall.
Trump appointed former Deputy Labor Secretary Keith E. Sonderling as interim director on March 20. Sonderling has no background or experience in library or museum institutions, according to Hyperallergic, an arts news website. He replaced Acting Director Cyndee Landrum, a longtime library science expert who also served as IMLS's deputy director before being appointed to the director position.
In a statement, Sonderling said he would "revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country's core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations."
The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums said the move amounted to an attack on tribal cultural institutions.
"It has demonstrated year after year its commitment to uplifting Native communities," the organization said. "We need to work together to ensure that decisionmakers in Congress and the Trump administration understand the vital contributions IMLS makes to the nation as a whole and to Native nations in particular."
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators who sponsored the 2018 reauthorization bill fired off a letter to Sonderling reiterating the small agency's importance to healthy communities, particularly small rural towns and tribal nations.
"Libraries offer access for all to essential information and engagement on a wide range of topics, including skills and career training, broadband, and computing services," the senators said.
Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., also expressed his "deep concern" over the cuts to IMLS. He pointed out that IMLS supports services ranging from early literacy programs and STEM education initiatives to high-speed internet access and job training resources to millions of Americans.
"The loss of this funding would be particularly devastating for rural, tribal and other underserved communities that rely heavily on these institutions for access to learning resources, workforce development and technological infrastructure," he said.
The American Library Association said the libraries most impacted would be in rural areas.
"By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration's executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer," the group said in a statement.
On April 3, IMLS notified three states — California, Connecticut and Washington — that their grants had been terminated.
"Withdrawing library grants is a callous move at any time, but downright cruel at a time when it's getting harder for many Americans to make ends meet — most of all, in small and rural communities," ALA President Cindy Hohl said in a statement. She asked every person who has benefited from the public library system to remind Congress and other elected officials "why America's libraries deserve more, not less funding."
It's not clear if any other states, including Arizona, would be the next to see their funding cut.
Two tribal librarians spoke to The Arizona Republic about the services they provide their communities and what would happen if their funding dries up.
The Ak-Chin Community Library serves the 1,100 members of the Ak-Chin Indian Community about 40 miles south of Phoenix. The small library has offered reading tutoring to both adults and young students, coding classes, book fairs, local author readings and after-school programs over the past several years. The library offers wifi hot spots and computers for community members who need to access the internet. It's one of the small tribe's community hubs.
But former librarian Melanie Toledo said none of that would be possible without IMLS tribal library grants. Toledo, a member of the Navajo Nation, ran the library from 2008 to 2024. She obtained about $600,000 in grants over a 16-year period.
That money was used to upgrade electronic infrastructure, purchase books, provide professional development and enhance internet services. She purchased 20 iPads for her young clients to use to learn how to do basic coding and engage in learning programs.
The beefed-up wifi capacity also helped community members access the internet during the COVID pandemic, she said. Toledo said that she was particularly proud of the IMLS-funded program to tutor elementary school students in reading.
"They weren't being served at the local public school," she said. The kids were being shunted up grade levels with very low reading skills. "If you can't read, you can't do anything," Toledo said.
She used the grant to hire a retired teacher to give one-on-one attention to challenged readers and a van to transport them to the library. She also developed a speech therapy program when she heard some of the children struggle to read aloud.
Before the reading program, Toledo said, one third grader was getting Ds and Fs in class because he couldn't read well. "But a year later after the reading program, he was on the honor roll," she said.
Toledo, who's currently pursuing a master's degree in education so she can become a teacher, said most tribes depend on IMLS funding to keep their libraries operating. She said small, cash-strapped tribes like Hopi would have to severely restrict or even close their small libraries without IMLS support.
The agency has also supported small tribal museums and cultural centers. For example, the Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Center received $32,200 in 2022 to improve its climate control system to better preserve collection items, upgrade its capacity to preserve the tribe's two languages and oral history, research items that could be returned to the tribe and fix the center's pottery wheel.
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Most museum grants are in the $40,000 to $50,000 range, while library grants are capped at $150,000.
Carr said the Navajo Nation's library has been providing Diné language and culture programs supplementing the 30- to 45 minutes of instruction offered at local public and Bureau of Indian Education schools. The library also holds author talks, story time and math learning events, and offers take-and-make craft kits.
Although New Mexico provides support for the Torreon branch and the Arizona Library Association and some state funds help the Arizona branches, the IMLS grants were meant to build more capacity and programming into the system. In addition to digital archiving and training, "we need a cataloger," he said.
He's also been sensitive to what the communities tell him they would like to see at their branches, as he also sees them as community hubs.
But keeping libraries open and serving thousands of community members comes with a price tag.
"Libraries are often the last thing that gets funded," Carr said. "Our staff has always done without a lot of support," he said, "but If we're not able to access those resource, we'd have to reconfigure our services."
Carr, a member of the Navajo Nation, also pointed out that funding for tribal institutions is part of the federal government's treaty and trust obligations to the tribal nations who ceded millions of acres in return for recognizing and supporting tribes' sovereign nation status and for the same ongoing funding for services as states receive.
He is particularly worried about Sonderling's statement that he would promote "American exceptionalism" in future IMLS programs. Tribal programs to preserve tribal language, culture and history "may not be seen by (IMLS leadership) as being 'American,'" Carr said.
IMLS did not return phone calls or emails by The Republic.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at [e-mail]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @debkrol.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tribal libraries may lose funding as Trump dismantles small agency