The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska depends on federal funding for most of its programs, including food distribution services and cultural activities. That funding was recently threatened by changes at the national level, including within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Shayla Shaishnikoff serves as the tribe’s interim administrator, and as president of the tribal council. She says when the second Trump administration took office, federal funding cuts led to some of the tribe’s grants being paused and some employees being furloughed. But those interruptions have since ended: most grant-funded projects are back on track and all furloughed employees are working again.
In response to what happened, the tribe is looking to diversify its funding sources.
Shaishnikoff sat down with KUCB’s Andy Lusk for an update on the Qawalangin Tribe’s programs.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Andy Lusk: I want to talk a little bit about what's new within the tribe based on the fact that we just have a lot of cuts happening at the federal level. I think you'd be hard pressed to find an organization in town that's not at least thinking about how this could impact their work.
With that being said, how have the current federal administration's recent funding cuts affected your organization's operations and services?
Shayla Shaishnikoff: We definitely have been impacted, that's for sure. I think we're pretty lucky in the sense that all of the grants that (were) put on freeze — I think there are about 12 of them — have since been reopened, so we've been able to start working under those grants again.
Unfortunately, during that time, we did have to furlough a couple employees, so there was a tangible impact there. Since then, we've been able to bring them back, and this has helped our operations significantly.
This all happened during a transition of leadership, also. I came on right in the middle of that, which was another hurdle, but I think we're definitely moving on the right path.
Lusk: These grants came back. What was that process like — how did you hear about, "Oh, we have the money again?"
Shaishnikoff: Essentially, we were given the thumbs up from our project officers to say we have the green light, you can begin working on these projects and you can begin charging again. So that was great news.
Lusk: What were some of the projects that were put on pause?
Shaishnikoff: For example, one of our [environmental] remediation grants was put on pause. We had other remediation grants that remained active. We had our food grant, which I know has been a hot topic for people. It's something that's important to our community as far as our food distributions go. We had some of our cultural and tribal justice grants put on pause, in addition to others as well. Like I said, I think there were 12.
Lusk: How much of your organization's budget relies on federal funding and which specific programs are the most vulnerable?
Shaishnikoff: The tribe is almost 100% dependent on federal funding. We're a grant-run organization, so it's definitely a scary time when we're seeing this happening and we really don't know what is going to happen in the future.
Almost all of our grants are back and running again. So right now, we feel as though we're in a good place.
The only question right now is how we're going to move forward with our food distribution program. That one is coming to a hard stop, and then that is related to the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) funding, but we are actively searching for other funding sources to keep that going.
We also have some food here on the island from a previous shipment, so we will be able to do at least one more distribution, hopefully in April. But we are also feeling confident that we're going to be able to find some other funds to secure that are not with the USDA so that we don't run into these issues again.
Lusk: Which organizations are you looking at right now?
Shaishnikoff: We do have a grant called the HOPE Grant, and that's one that it looks like we can begin using in this capacity. And this is going to be funneled through our wellness program. It ties in really well, as food is wellness.
And then also, we're looking at another grant that can potentially help us with more the administrative side of things that one's still in the process. So we don't have, like, a current list of people that we are surely going to go to for, but we're in the research process.
Lusk: What should Unalaskans know about how these federal cuts might change the services your organization provides to the community?
Shaishnikoff: I think we're pretty lucky in that we are fully operational again. We have that grant funding back.
That being said, we don't know what comes in the future. We don't know if similar orders are going to be made. But right now, I will say that we do feel pretty good about where we're at, and we're hoping for the best.
Given future federal cuts, and just with the knowledge of you know this has already happened, we are starting to look to diversify our funding sources so that we aren't reliant on federal grants, but we can look to other nonprofit organizations and philanthropic entities and so forth. So, diversifying our funding sources is definitely something that we are interested in pursuing, especially given these recent events.
Lusk: Could you get into what that looks like (with) some of the specific organizations you're looking at?
Shaishnikoff: We don't have that right now. This is all the initial process and a reaction to what has happened, in preparation for the worst — which, of course, we don't want to happen, but yeah — just making sure our bases are covered.
Lusk: So, this is more of a proactive move?
Shaishnikoff: Correct, yes.
Lusk: Could you paint a picture of what your organization might look like if these funding reductions continue or deepen?
Shaishnikoff: If we continue to see those funding reductions, we're definitely going to have to act quickly, because a lot of our funding is at the federal level. It's not clear right now, if we do see future reductions, if that will be across all of our federal entities that we work with. We work with [the Bureau of Indian Affairs], we work with (the Environmental Protection Agency). You know, it's not all in one category, so the details on that (are) definitely going to matter.
With the future cuts of funding, especially on the federal level, it is scary for us, because that is where a lot of our revenue comes from, and what exactly that will look like is, it's really hard to paint that picture, I think because, again, it depends on which areas that's focused on. But I will say that moving forward, if we do see that, we're going to try very hard to maintain our employees.
We did have to do a lot of shifting of some employees to different projects, which changed their scope of work completely sometimes, just to make sure that we had them working on projects that could keep them on board and keep them working.
So, we are resilient and we're doing what we can to keep everyone on board, and we're hoping to continue in that fashion.
Lusk: I want to follow up on something you mentioned earlier, that some employees were furloughed when these cuts initially came about. Were all of those employees brought back?
Shaishnikoff: Yes, they were. So we're very happy about that. Those are some really tough calls that have to be made, but luckily, yes, we were able to bring those employees back, and we're up and running once again.
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