USDA Cuts $9M Tribal Ag Projects, Tribes Fight Back

0:00It's April 3rd. Welcome in. This is Canada News Today, where local news meets AI. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just pulled the plug on nearly $9 million in grants for tribal health and ag projects in Montana. Peacani Lodge Health Institute on the Black Feed Reservation got hit hardest, along with the Chippewa Creek Tribes nearly $6 million land by. Initiative and a four-bands program, training low-income farmers across four states. These projects aimed to buy farmland, train young ranchers, and build community kitchens for processing local goods like jams and jerky. Officials caught out stuff like a $20,000 barbecue smoker, as wasteful, and tied the whole thing to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Preferences that don't fit the program's land access mission. Tribal leaders are reeling, saying it's devastating and straight up cruel. They argue these aren't DEI handouts. Tribes are sovereign nations with government to government ties, not racial categories.

1:03One planning director even said it made him want to cry after years of hard work to create jobs for youth. The fallout means delay construction, slash budgets, restructured staff, and may be halting projects entirely, hurting economic growth in native. Communities are already facing land ownership hurdles and market access issues. Meanwhile, USDA spokespeople defended as fixing misuse from the last administration's taxpayer dollars. Peacani Lodge is gearing up to appeal through the National Appeals Division before the 30-day deadline, while the Chippewa Cree clashes for. As young farmers struggle nationwide with rising costs, these cuts spotlight the tightrope between support and scrutiny in tribal ag development.