Over one million American Indian and Alaska Native people and 42 million Americans will be impacted if funding lapses for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as the government shutdown persists.

On Oct. 10, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary memo confirmed current funding is set to lapse on Nov. 1 if an agreement isn’t reached to end the government shutdown – which is now the second longest in American history.

“It’s just a matter of time that those food banks start running out of food,” said Bobby Gonzalez, chairman of the Caddo Nation, which is located more than 56 miles west of Oklahoma City. “This is a huge deal, especially when an economy is already strapped.”

What this would mean is SNAP benefits, which are used by 24 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native households, may be reduced or stopped on Nov. 1, a message that health and human services officials from several states have warned will happen.

“SNAP impacts everyone across the nation, and here in Oklahoma we have over 700,000 residents of all ethnicities and races that (use SNAP),” Gonzalez said. “Poverty here in Oklahoma is real and so is food insecurity.”

The Trump Administration could take steps to prevent this funding from lapsing, according to USDA’s “Lapse of Funding Plan” issued on Sept. 30. The plan states SNAP’s October benefits were funded in September, which came from 2025 appropriations. However, the report also says, “Multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

“This is not a handout from the United States government, these are trust and treaty responsibilities to tribes like Caddo Nation, period,” Gonzalez said. “The United States government and the president have a trust obligation to continue funding these programs. … We’re not part of some DEI group, we’re tribal nations. There’s treaty and trust responsibilities that the United States government has, regardless if you’re shut down, regardless of who the president is. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat or Republican, there is a trust responsibility to make sure that these tribes are taken care of related to those treaty rights.”

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