On top of all the outrageous things that the Trump administration has done to “make America great again,” one of the biggest offenders is the big hit on SNAP benefits, plus the recent shutdown. Plenty of people from a variety of backgrounds are suffering because of this, and one of these groups is those native to North America. With the government no longer properly providing food aid to those from whom the land was taken, Montana tribes have now started hunting, killing buffalo that almost faced extinction many years ago.
Of course, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is something humans have been doing for tens of thousands of years. Yet it’s still wild to think people are turning to this practice in 2025 because of the incompetence of the US’s leadership. “It shows we still need buffalo,” remarks Fort Peck’s steward in Montana. According to the National Congress of American Indians president, “It’s the obligation they incurred when they took our lands, when they stole our lands, when they cheated us out of our lands. It lacks humanity to do this with SNAP, with food,” per AP.
The American native tribes in Montana and elsewhere weren’t exactly living a luxurious life in the first place before their SNAP benefits were ruthlessly cut. Now, some need to hunt wild animals just to put food on the table for their families. Many feel like it’s a great thing that these folks have the right to hunt on their lands, but it’s still tragic that the government isn’t doing their people right.
“The Donald Trump effect,” remarks an online commenter. “They were doing it as emergency sustenance for their people that were cut off from funding. This isn’t a good thing,” adds a Redditor. “And it’s a bad thing the shutdown is putting them in this situation,” says a third. A fourth puts it quite eloquently: “Turning to slaughtering a species so much effort was put into reversing its path to extinction in order to feed desperate people during a political crisis is disquieting, even when it’s sensible.”
