On a 90-square-mile rural reservation between the eastern Jemez Mountains and the banks of the Rio Grande River, it is located in the Santa Clara Pueblo Community Library, the host of the northern New Mexico tribe.

Tribal Governor James Naranjo told NBC News that Santa Clara Pueblo retained very few internet services and told NBC News and expanded access to technology and literacy programs for its 1,700 members.

Nalanho said the library relies on federal grants to build bridges between tribes and other scope services – which could be grants on shreds due to cuts by the Trump administration.

Pueblo is one of more than a hundred libraries An IMLS spokesman said on federally recognized tribal lands across the country, the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) notified that the country's federal agency is responsible for funding local libraries and museums across the country - and their grants for Congress grants have been terminated.

"IMLS has determined that your grant is no longer aligned with the agency's priorities and no longer in the interests of the U.S. and IMLS programs," said a letter obtained by NBC News from a tribal grant writer who received the grant. "IMLS is repurposing its funding allocation in new directions to promote the president's agenda."

The letter was signed by Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, and President Donald Trump appointed Acting Director of the IMLS in March. A few days after Sonderling’s appointment, Trump signed an executive order directing the agency and signed six more people to “maximum compliance with applicable laws.” Only Congress has the legal power to close the institution.

Trump’s March 14 order directed the IML (to ensure that state and sovereign tribes can provide numerous services to the public, such as early literacy resources, Braille books, Internet access, Internet access and cultural programs) to cease all operations, cut all operations, and provide reports to the Office of Management and provide proof of compliance in detail by the management and budget.

Within a few days, the Ministry of Government Efficiency landed on 75 IMLS staff. Except for a dozen, everyone enjoys administrative leave. Then, in early April, Sonderling terminated all IML grants, except for the IML grants that were omitted by human error.

The spokesman said the grants were terminated for evaluation purposes if some of them were consistent with government priorities but refused to provide details about the timeline and standards.

The comprehensive grant cancellation is part of a broader effort by Trump and Elon Musk’s administration’s Department of Efficiency to significantly reduce the scope of federal spending, through frozen funds and ordering mass layoffs at many institutions, including the Department of Education, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and the Bureau of Environmental Protection.

The American Library Association, as well as the largest union representing library employees, sued Sonderling, Trump and Doge to prevent the removal of IMLS last month.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon last week approved a temporary restraining order that barred the Trump administration from further cutting IMLS staff and grants.

The injunction approved Tuesday in another lawsuit filed by 21 state attorneys general against the Trump administration consolidates the IML’s provision that it cannot further reduce its size, but the future of grants remains as the lawsuit continues before the final ruling. In his 2026 budget outline, Trump proposed to allocate funds to the IML.

Tribal leaders worry that this could mean the end of the library services their voters rely on and the beginning of a long battle.

"It's personal to me," said Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association.

“As we continue to look at the current government situation, we need to advocate for the needs of our sovereign states,” Hall said. “We need to hold the federal government responsible for upholding its responsibility for trust.”

Hall added: “Tribal libraries and tribal communities have specific needs to protect their culture, language, heritage and live as traditional people in our traditional communities.”

The initial cuts included four grant programs dedicated to supporting Native Americans, Alaska natives and Hawaiian local communities.

Thousands of miles from New Mexico, the only library of the 68-person village tribe in southwestern Alaska, deprived it of funds to rely on buying books and maintaining its summer reading program. In Juneau, funds for a project dedicated to digitizing and maintaining the history of Alaska Native peoples was cut. In India, the federal government that funded tribal librarians and coordinators’ salaries has dried up to make them run their work and plans in danger.

"Unfortunately, these cuts are nationwide and it hurts our children," Nalanho said. "You know, it hurts our unborn. It hurts our communities in general. Yes, $10,000 may be a small amount, but it's huge for us."

Last year, Santa Clara Pueblo received $10,000 through the Native American Library Services Basic Grant Program, which aims to provide small, hard to reach Native American and Native communities and receive funding to meet the individual needs of each tribe. Without grants, Nalanho and tribal leaders across the country may have to make difficult decisions to get their local libraries and museums to abandon.

“Our library is our vault,” said Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Charles Suazo, who previously served as library coordinator. "It has our traditional language, some old pictures, some artifacts from the past. … Without that, everything will be lost."

Santa Clara Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico share the traditional TEWA language that is compromised by native speaker experts. Ohkay Owingeh's P'oe Tsawa Community Library's IMLS funded project will TEWA church tribal youth to save it, but if the grant is not fully restored, it may be in the chopping block.

“These are really crucial services,” said Ohkay Owingeh Lt. Matthew Martinez. “I mean, physically, our library is located in the heart of our tribal community in rural northern New Mexico.”

IMLS was founded in 1996 and Trump himself reauthorized in 2018, announcing a $5.9 million grant last year, granting 173 grants to Native Americans and Native tribes, according to a statement from the agency. Congress allocated $294.8 million to the agency in 2024.

Whether the president has the right to stop the flow of the federal government that Congress grants, as well as the IML that has been granted, is the center of appeals, some tribal leaders and grant managers Hope their community service program lifeline.

The Makah Tribe in Neah Bay, Washington is home to the Makah Center for Culture and Research, which can remain in most of the $149,779 Native American Library Enhancement Grant. Janine Ledford, executive director of the Makah Center for Culture and Research, said IMLS did not fully repay the grant funds when the grant terminated half of its life cycle.

"The program has been empowering individuals to a healthy journey in response to the shocking opioid epidemic," Ledford wrote in an appeal letter sent to Sonderling on May 7 and shared with NBC News. "The MCRC has been open since 1979 and has never offered any federal awards and was then revoked."

Tribal leaders say the huge breach of breach of contract between the federal government and sovereign tribal states has been a wound for hundreds of years.

“If you look at history, the federal government, you know, put our parents and grandparents in boarding schools. Language is not taught.” “We are punished for speaking () language, so we have built the motivation to make it use the language and incorporate it into everything we do.”