Native American tribes were expected to see some long-awaited relief money from the federal government trickle in as soon as Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department -- but the battle is long from over with no timetable set for the remaining funds and a court fight over some of that cash potentially
The nearly 600 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. have not yet received any of the $8 billion set aside for tribes in the CARES Act, which passed over a month ago, despite the devastation Native American tribes have disproportionately experienced from coronavirus.
The delay in relief has"outraged" tribal leaders across the country, said Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, in an interview. "Once they do that, they can start to repair some of the injury that's been inflicted on Indian Country during a time when we are on the front lines of public health, when we have experienced crippling effects to our own region's economies, and in which we need to share in the recovery," he said.
That relief would particularly benefit tribes that have small populations but employ thousands of people through tribal businesses, like gaming, though all tribes stand to benefit from the money in different proportions. "They certainly deserve relief, but the 573 federally recognized tribal governments should get exactly what the Congress intended, which is an appropriate share among those tribes of the $8 billion," Hoskin said.
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