The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape federal cultural institutions as part of a broader attack on what the president characterizes as “woke” or diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have left many Indigenous arts and culture institutions in a challenging position, according to leaders at those institutions as well as culture workers and advocates who spoke to Truthout.

Institutions offering Indigenous arts and culture programming, as well as those centering the histories and culture of other communities of color, are at disproportionate risk of being defunded and further marginalized under the administration’s policies. Faced with sweeping cuts to federal agencies that have historically supported cultural programming nationwide, these institutions are dipping into reserves, building new partnerships, turning to their communities for donations, and receiving added support from philanthropic organizations.

“At one level or another, we’re all impacted by this,” Estevan Rael-Galvez, executive director of Native Bound Unbound, told Truthout of his organization’s work and others in the field. Native Bound Unbound is a digital humanities project archiving histories of Indigenous slavery in the Western Hemisphere. Still, Rael-Galvez told Truthout, the Trump administration’s attack on cultural heritage programs “puts all the more fire in my belly to work towards recovering these histories.”

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (ATALM) called the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) a threat to the future of Indigenous archives, libraries, museums, cultural centers, historic preservation offices, and language programs in the U.S. in April 2025.