Paige Willett landed a job at the Bureau of Indian Education as a Communications Specialist in the summer of 2023. Willett, a Citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, was responsible for media requests, communications plans, social media and other projects such as the STEP Initiative, which helped BIE schools create websites to keep their students and parents informed.
When Willett started talking about the STEP initiative, she began to get emotional.
“Obviously, I won't be a part of it anymore, which is very unfortunate and makes me sad,” Willett said in an interview with KOSU. “It was a really big project, and one that we felt like had a lot of impact.”
Willett was one of 40 BIE employees slated to be let go. The employees targeted in this layoff wave are “probationary,” meaning they were recently hired or moved to a new position.
Other federal agencies, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIE), were also affected by the layoff spree. Willett said she knew of three people who had lost their BIE jobs, all of whom had been hired around the same time.
“I think with the layoffs, Indian Country is being impacted, and these are things that were promised to Indigenous nations that should be upheld,” Willett said. “All we all wanted to do was our jobs.”
Late last month, she was faced with deciding whether to choose the deferred resignation program, and she chose to stick it out. Her mother, a public school teacher for almost forty years, instilled a passion for ensuring the next generation’s success.
“I believed in what I was doing throughout my career,” Willett said. “I have always enjoyed and had my whole heart into serving Indian Country. And getting a chance to do that for education and for students was really special.”
In Oklahoma, there is one Bureau-operated school and four tribally-controlled schools: Chickasaw Children’s Village, Eufaula Dormitory, Jones Academy, Riverside Indian School and Sequoyah High School. There is also one tribal college, the College of Muscogee Nation.
Community impacts
Indian Health System workers were also supposed to be impacted by the potential wave of 950 job cuts. Still, the new Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., verbally rescinded the layoffs, as ICT reported.
Though IHS workers weren’t included in this round of firings, Cheyenne and Arapaho Governor Reggie Wassana explained they will still affect the surrounding community.
“I think anytime you have a large layoff of any scale, it affects the communities,” he said. “It also affects the purchasing power of your mom-and-pop stores that people don't eat out as much. They don't shop much. … It trickles down into all stages in a community, regardless of what it is.”
One of these jobs is the role of BIA Osage Agency superintendent, formerly held by Adam Trumbly. He’s one of 118 BIA employees expected to lose their jobs.
Trumbly, who had initially filled the position last November, told Osage News on Friday morning he’d been laid off as part of these federal cuts.
“I have been notified I will be relieved of duty effective sometime today as part of a government downsizing. It has been a pleasure working with you in my capacity as Superintendent for the Osage Agency,” Trumbly said in an email to Osage Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear. “I will continue to assist the Osage Nation in any way I can; however, it appears as though it will no longer be in my capacity as Superintendent.”
While serving as agency superintendent, Trumbly notably helped the Osage Nation with placing their historic Osage Nation Ranch into trust, a move that concluded a long acquisition battle for the tribe.
Vice President of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes Tasha Mousseau said the layoffs could have a big impact on her Southwest Oklahoma community.
Her tribal nation is located in Anadarko, also home to the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, the Delaware Nation and a BIA office.
At this time, it’s uncertain if some layoffs will be rescinded alongside IHS. What is clear, according to Mousseau, is these cuts will have a negative ripple effect on community members.
“It's a broad impact on Indian Country. Everything is related. The systems are related, the people are related,” she said. “I think this layoff is impacting everyone because we all have family and friends who work for these institutions—and then it's impacting their little families.”
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