New Storymap: Visualizing Federal Spending in Indian Country

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As part of our commitment to increasing Native access to data that empowers informed decision-making, the Native Lands Advocacy Project (NLAP) recently published three data dashboards that focus on federal spending as it relates to tribes. Our new storymap walks through each of these tools and shows users how to access relevant data about federal investments in Indian Country. Read on to learn more about the three data tools!

Federally Funded Projects in Indian Country

The Federally Funded Projects in Indian Country dashboard displays data about projects within tribal boundaries that were funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and/or the Infrastructure Reduction Act. These two Biden-era acts allocated billions of dollars both directly into tribal communities and to the federal agencies responsible for overseeing Indian Affairs.

The ability to easily and accurately identify where these federal investments in Indian Country have gone is important for tribes in evaluating the efficacy and equity of these programs. This dashboard visualizes data from the years 2022 to 2025 and can be filtered according to the federal project type and the Native land area.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Budget Breakdown

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Budget Breakdown dashboard summarizes data from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Yearly Highlights Reports, which show BIA spending by categories, programs, and sub-programs for the years 2022 to 2025. NLAP digitized these static reports to visualize the data interactively and bring more transparency into government spending.

As the agency that embodies the government-to-government relationship between the U.S. and federally recognized tribes, the BIA is responsible for enhancing tribal quality of life, promoting economic opportunities, and carrying out the federal responsibilities of protecting and improving the trust assets of American Indians and Alaska Natives (Bureau of Indian Affairs History, n.d.). However, discrimination of access to information and funding continues to impede on sovereign tribal development. This dashboard aims to increase the transparency owed by the BIA to federally recognized tribes.

Farm Service Agency Disbursements Across U.S. Lands

The FSA Disbursements Across U.S. Lands dashboard offers insight into how funds are distributed across different Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs. It visualizes data for funding recipients on Native and non-Native lands, allowing for a comprehensive overview of funding trends as well as comparative analyses. 

The FSA is a key resource offering support to American farmers by administering farm commodity programs, providing credit to agricultural producers in need, offering loans to minority farmers and ranchers, and implementing disaster programs for agricultural producers when necessary (USDA Agency History). NLAP created this dashboard to provide tribes with an overview of how these funds were allocated during 2021 and 2023 to empower Native agricultural producers, policymakers, and tribal stakeholders with accessible and transparent insights into federal agricultural spending. 

Learn More About These Federal Investments in Indian Country

Interested in learning more about these data & seeing demonstrations of how to navigate these tools? Check out our Federal Spending storymap!

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