📚 War on Libraries: Trump's Executive Order Threatens Public Knowledge and Native American Libraries and Museums

Explore how recent political actions could dismantle vital community resources and restrict access to information.

Mar 18, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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📚✨ Imagine your library is like a treasure chest full of knowledge, and it has special keys 🗝️ that help everyone learn, find jobs, and stay connected. Now, imagine someone took away some of those keys so fewer people could get inside. That's what a new rule is trying to do—take away important library resources that help everyone, especially in small towns 🏡 and for people without good internet 🌐. But just like in stories, we can all team up 🤝 to tell leaders these keys are important and must stay safe for everyone to use. 📣📖

🗝️ Takeaways

📉 IMLS Cuts: Trump's Executive Order targets the Institute of Museum and Library Services, enforcing drastic reductions.
🔨 Dismantling Libraries: Reductions will eliminate non-essential services, crucial for modern libraries.
🌆 Community Impact: Rural areas, often Trump supporters, will be hardest hit, losing vital library services.
🚫 Access Denied: Critical programs like Digital Literacy and language support face termination.
🤝 Collective Resistance: Community organization and political pressure are essential to counteract these cuts.
🌍 Global Connection: Library advocacy links with wider justice struggles, amplifying the fight for knowledge.

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The War on Knowledge: Trump's Latest Attack on Libraries and What It Means for Our Communities

Once again, the administration that promised to "make America great" is working overtime to make America ignorant. On Friday, March 14, President Trump signed yet another Executive Order, this time targeting one of the last bastions of democratic access to information in our communities: public libraries.

Ay, qué conveniente, ¿no? First they come for our bodies at the border, then they come for our histories in the archives, and now they come for our futures in the libraries.

What's Actually Happening

For those who haven't been following this latest assault on public institutions, here's what you need to know: Trump's Executive Order specifically targets the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency providing funding to libraries nationwide. The order mandates that IMLS must reduce its functions to only "statutory" requirements and slash expenses everywhere else.

Let that sink in. The administration is targeting an agency that represents a microscopic 0.0046% of the federal budget—just $280 million. To put that in perspective, that's less than the cost of a single F-35 fighter jet. Pero claro, books are apparently more dangerous than bombs in the eyes of power.

The IMLS has until March 21, 2025—this Friday—to report back on how they'll implement these cuts. Like a slow-motion demolition, we're watching the infrastructure of public knowledge being dismantled brick by brick.

What's at Stake

When we talk about library funding, we're not just talking about buildings with books. We're talking about:

Digital access points for communities without reliable internet
Language learning resources for immigrants and refugees
Job search assistance for the unemployed
Safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in hostile communities
Cultural preservation programs for Native languages and traditions
Early literacy initiatives for children from all backgrounds
Public meeting spaces for community organizing

The EveryLibrary Institute has outlined which functions will remain (statutory) and which could be eliminated (non-statutory). Among the services that could be lost:

Museum Services Activities
The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
Digital Literacy initiatives
Support for Emerging Technologies
Technical Assistance for Libraries
Public-Private Partnerships

Translation: anything that helps create a knowledgeable workforce or keeps libraries current in the digital age is on the chopping block.

Who Will Be Hurt the Most

In a twist of bitter irony, the communities that will feel these cuts most deeply are the same rural areas that likely voted for this administration. According to the American Library Association's statement, rural libraries receive more federal aid than their suburban and urban counterparts.

State library associations are already sounding the alarm about specific impacts:

Michigan would lose its Electronic Library (MeL and MeLcat), a system that allows libraries to share resources across the state
Iowa would lose Interlibrary Loan services, STEM programs, and access to ebooks
Native American library services, which are protected explicitly as statutory functions but chronically underfunded, would struggle even more to meet growing needs. This is particularly alarming given that these services are often the only repositories and access points for Indigenous histories and knowledge in many communities.

Meanwhile, academic institutions are staying silent, fearing retribution if they speak out against the administration's actions. ¿Qué pasó con la libertad académica? Desapareció junto con la verdad, parece.

The Bigger Picture: A Pattern of Erasure and Attacks

This Executive Order doesn't exist in isolation. It's part of a coordinated assault on public institutions that has been brewing for years. Since January, we've watched this administration systematically dismantle government departments under the guidance of Elon Musk and his so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).

Let's be clear about what we're witnessing: this isn't about saving money. It's about controlling information, limiting access to knowledge, and undermining the institutions that empower communities to think critically.

The timing is hardly coincidental. As book bans sweep across school districts, as librarians face criminalization for providing diverse materials, and as Indigenous histories are erased from curricula, the federal government delivers another blow by cutting the funding that keeps these institutions afloat.

Digital Colonization: The Navajo Code Talkers and the Erasure of Indigenous Contributions

This attack on libraries parallels another disturbing development: the systematic removal of articles about Navajo Code Talkers from U.S. military websites. Last week, reports emerged that at least ten articles about these Indigenous heroes have disappeared from Army and Department of Defense platforms. The URLs now end with "DEI” making it painfully obvious they were removed as part of Trump's executive order ending federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

¿En serio? The Navajo Code Talkers – who created an unbreakable code using their Indigenous language that helped secure America's victory in the Pacific during World War II – are now classified as "divisive" DEI content?

This digital erasure extends beyond the Code Talkers to include profiles of Indigenous combat veterans, chronicles of Native American women who served, and stories of other Code Talker groups like the Choctaw, Comanche, and Meskwaki. Some terms, like "Meskwaki," no longer appear on Department of Defense websites at all. Borrado completamente.

The pattern is unmistakable: whether through defunding libraries or scrubbing websites, Indigenous knowledge, history, and contributions are being systematically removed from public access. This isn't fiscal responsibility—it's digital colonization.

The Borderlands Perspective

From where I stand in the borderlands, the connection between the wall cutting through our desert and the barriers being erected around knowledge is painfully clear. Both are monuments to fear—fear of difference, fear of change, fear of truth.

In our communities, libraries are not just buildings with books; they are lifelines. They are where the children of farm workers go to complete homework because there's no internet at home. They are where elders record oral histories in languages that colonizers tried to eradicate. They are where newly arrived families learn about their rights in a country that increasingly denies them.

When federal funding disappears, these services don't just become inconvenient—they become impossible. And the digital divide, already a canyon in Indigenous and immigrant communities, becomes an unbridgeable abyss.

La verdad es que when they target libraries, they target the possibility of resistance itself. Because every movement for justice begins with people who can access information, understand their history, and imagine alternatives to oppression.

Think about what it means when library funding and military histories featuring Indigenous contributions are targeted simultaneously. This creates a double erasure—removing both the content itself and the institutions that might help preserve and share that content. It's like bulldozing sacred sites while simultaneously outlawing the teaching of why those sites were sacred in the first place.

The attack on Native American Library Services is particularly devastating in this context. These services aren't just about books—they're about cultural preservation, language revitalization, and maintaining connections to knowledge systems that have survived centuries of attempted erasure. When a young Indigenous person can't access stories about how their language saved American lives during World War II, or when tribal elders can't document oral histories because their library lost funding for digital recording equipment, the cycle of erasure continues.

What We Can Do: Fighting Back

Despite the grim reality we're facing, this is not the time for despair. It's time for organized resistance. Here's how you can fight back:

Sign and share the petition at EveryLibrary to stop Trump's Executive Order. Make it go viral in every community, every language, every platform.
Contact your representatives at the federal level. Find your Senators here and your Representative here. Tell them you demand they defend IMLS funding. Be specific about how libraries serve your community.
Keep calling even when voicemails are full. Your persistence matters. Document who you called and when. Use tools like 5 Calls if you need help crafting your message.
Reach out to state representatives about strengthening state-level protections and funding for libraries in the face of federal cuts.
Show up at library board meetings and put your support on the record. In times when what isn't documented doesn't exist, make your voice part of the official record.
Connect library advocacy with other struggles for justice. Environmental organizers, immigrant rights advocates, Indigenous sovereignty movements—we all have a stake in preserving public access to information.
Support library workers who are being targeted by legislation aimed at severing their connections to professional organizations like the American Library Association.
Document and preserve digital content related to Indigenous histories, especially military contributions like the Navajo Code Talkers. Take screenshots, save web pages, use tools like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to maintain records of what's being removed.
Support Indigenous media outlets and knowledge keepers who are documenting histories outside of government platforms. Publications, community radio stations, and digital archives run by and for Indigenous communities need your attention and resources now more than ever.

Finding Hope in Resistance

History teaches us that every attempt to control knowledge has failed eventually. Books banned become books smuggled. Stories suppressed become stories told in new ways. Libraries closed become underground networks of information sharing.

Our ancestors didn't survive centuries of attempts to erase their languages, stories, and traditions, only for us to surrender access to knowledge without a fight. From the codices hidden during colonization to the freedom schools of the civil rights movement, our communities have always found ways to preserve and share knowledge, even under the most oppressive conditions.

What gives me hope is seeing coalitions form across traditional divides—urban and rural libraries supporting each other, academic and public institutions sharing resources, and elders and youth working together to document community knowledge outside institutional walls.

Nuestra lucha for libraries is inseparable from our struggle for clean water, for Indigenous sovereignty, for immigrant justice, for climate action. They are all battles against the same systems of power that seek to extract, exploit, and exclude.

The administration may control the executive branch today, but they do not control our capacity to organize, to share knowledge, to reimagine and rebuild our communities around principles of access, equity, and collective liberation.

Join the Conversation

I want to hear from you. How are library cuts and the erasure of Indigenous histories impacting your specific community? What creative strategies are you developing to preserve access to information?

Leave a comment below:

What essential service does your local library provide that you couldn't access elsewhere in your community, particularly for preserving cultural and historical knowledge?
What stories of Indigenous contributions to American history do you think should be more widely known and protected from erasure?