By MATTHEW BROWN and GRAHAM LEE BREWER of The Associated Press and AMELIA SCHAFER of ICT

WOLF POINT, Mont. (AP) — On the open plains of the Fort Peck Reservation, Robert Magnan leaned out the window of his truck, set a rifle against the door frame and then “pop!” — a bison tumbled dead in its tracks.

Magnan and a co-worker shot two more bison, also known as buffalo, and quickly field dressed the animals before carting them off for processing into ground beef and cuts of meat for distribution to members of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in northern Montana.

Buffalo graze at the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes Buffalo Ranch near Wolf Point, Mont., on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)

As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., plodded toward resolving the record government shutdown that interrupted food aid for tens of millions of people, tribal leaders on rural reservations across the Great Plains were culling their cherished bison herds to help fill the gap.

About one-third of Fort Peck’s tribal members on the reservation depend on monthly benefit checks, Chairman Floyd Azure said. That’s almost triple the rate for the U.S. as a whole. They’ve received only partial payments in November after President Donald Trump’s administration choked off funds to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the shutdown.

Fort Peck officials say they anticipated such a moment years ago, when they were bolstering their herd with animals from Yellowstone National Park over objections from cattle ranchers worried about animal disease.

“We were bringing it up with the tribal council: What would happen if the government went bankrupt? How would we feed the people?” said Magnan, the longtime steward of Fort Peck’s bison herds. “It shows we still need buffalo.”

Treaty obligations

In October, the tribal government authorized killing 30 bison — about 12,000 pounds of meat. Half had been shot by Tuesday. A pending deal to end the shutdown comes too late for the rest, Magnan said. With Montana among the states that dispersed only partial SNAP payments, Azure said Fort Peck will keep handing out buffalo meat for the time being.

Tribes including the Blackfeet, the Lower Brule Sioux, the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Crow have done the same in response to Washington’s dysfunction: feeding thousands of people with bison from herds restored over recent decades after the animals were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s.

Carrie Shawl, center, and Natalie Cooper, left, show their SNAP documents at a food distribution site in Frazer, Mont., on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)

Food and nutrition assistance programs are part of the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities — its legal and moral obligations to fund tribes’ health and well-being in exchange for land and resources the U.S. took from tribes.

“It’s the obligation they incurred when they took our lands, when they stole our lands, when they cheated us out of our lands,” said Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians. “It lacks humanity to do this with SNAP, with food.”

Fort Peck tribal members Miki Astogo and Dillon Jackson-Fisher, who are unemployed, said they borrowed food from Jackson-Fisher’s mother in recent weeks after SNAP payments didn’t come through. On Sunday they got a partial payment — about $196 instead of the usual $298 per month — Agosto said.

With four children to feed, the couple said the money won’t last. So they walked 4 miles into town on Monday to pick up a box of food from the tribes that included 2 pounds of bison.

“Our vehicle’s in the shop, but we have to put food on the table before we pay for the car, you know?” Jackson-Fisher said.

Moose in Maine, deer in Oklahoma

Native American communities elsewhere in the U.S. also are tapping into natural resources to make up for lost federal aid. Members of the Mi’kmaq Nation in Maine stocked a food bank with trout from their hatchery and locally hunted moose meat. In southeastern Oklahoma, the Comanche Nation is accepting deer meat for food banks. And in the southwestern part of the state, the Choctaw Nation set up three meat processing facilities.

A box of food includes buffalo meat, harvested from the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes Buffalo Ranch, at a food distribution site in Frazer, Mont., on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)

Another program that provides food to eligible Native American households, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, has continued through the shutdown.

Mi’kmaq is among the tribes that don’t have the program, though the tribe is eligible. The Mi’kmaq also get funding for food pantries through the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, but that money, too, was tied up by the shutdown, tribal Chief Sheila McCormack said.

Roughly 80% of Mi’kmaq tribal members in Aroostook County are SNAP recipients, said Kandi Sock, the tribe’s community services director.

“We have reached out for some extra donations; our farm came through with that, but it will not last long,” Sock said.

The demise of bison, onset of starvation

Buffalo played a central role for Plains tribes for centuries, providing meat for food and hides for clothing and shelter.

That came to an abrupt end when white “hide hunters” arrived in 1879 in the Upper Missouri River basin around Fort Peck, which had some of the last vestiges of herds that once numbered millions of animals, Assiniboine historian Dennis Smith said. By 1883 the animals were virtually exterminated, said Smith, a retired University of Nebraska-Omaha history professor.

Buffalo manager Robert Magnan, center, field dresses a bison at the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes Buffalo Ranch near Wolf Point, Mont., on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mike Clark)

With no way to feed themselves and the government denying them food, the buffalo’s demise heralded a time of starvation for the Assiniboine, he said. Many other Plains tribes also suffered hardship.

Hundreds of miles to the west of Fort Peck, the Blackfeet Nation killed 18 buffalo from its herd and held a special elk harvest to distribute meat to tribal members. The tribe already gave out buffalo meat periodically to elders, the sick and for ceremonies and social functions. But it’s never killed so many of the 700 animals at once.

“We can’t do that many all the time. We don’t want to deplete the resource,” said Ervin Carlson, who runs the Blackfeet buffalo program.

In South Dakota, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has distributed meat from about 20 of its buffalo. The tribe worked to build its capacity to feed people since experiencing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. It now has a meat processing plant that can handle 25 to 30 animals a week, said Jayme Murray with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Buffalo Authority Corp. Tribes from Minnesota to Montana have asked to use the plant, but they’ve had to turn some down, Murray said.

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A former ‘food desert’ leans on its own herds

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in central South Dakota recently got its first full-fledged grocery store, ending its decades-long status as a “food desert” where people had to drive 100 miles round trip for groceries. The interruption to SNAP benefits stoked panic, tribal treasurer and secretary Marty Jandreau said.

Benefits for November were reduced to 65% of the usual amount.

But the Lower Brule have buffalo, cattle and elk in abundance across more than 9 square miles. On Sunday, the tribe gave away more than 400 pounds of meat to more than 100 tribal members, council members said.

“It makes me feel very proud that we have things we can give back,” tribal council member Marlo Langdeau said.

Schafer reported from Lower Brule, South Dakota, and Brewer from Oklahoma City.

The Associated Press receives financial support for coverage of Indigenous communities from the Hopper-Dean Family Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at  ap.org.

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

Congress has taken a major step toward reopening the government, but there’s still uncertainty about when one of the most far-reaching impacts of the closure will be resolved and all 42 million Americans who receive SNAP food aid will have access to their full November benefits.

The House on Wednesday adopted a plan to reopen and sent it to President Donald Trump to sign.

One provision calls for restarting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but even that doesn’t resolve when the benefits will be loaded onto the debit cards beneficiaries use to buy groceries.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available “upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states.” The department didn’t immediately answer questions about where it might take longer — or whether the 24-hour timeline applies to when money would be available to states or loaded onto debit cards used by beneficiaries.

There has been a series of court battles over the fate of the largest government food program, which serves about 1 in 8 Americans.

Here are things to know about how it could go.

When SNAP funds become available could vary by state

Seesawing court rulings and messages from the USDA have meant that beneficiaries in some states already have received their full monthly allocations while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.

States say it’s faster to provide full benefits than it is to do the calculations and computer programming required for partial amounts.

At least 19 states plus the District of Columbia issued full benefits to at least some recipients last week, an Associated Press tally found. Many of them managed to do it in a day or so, in the narrow window between the Nov. 6 court ruling that required the federal government to make full payments and one Nov. 7 by the U.S. Supreme Court that stopped it.

Jessica Garon, a spokesperson for the American Public Human Services Association, said she anticipates most states will be able to issue full benefits within three days after they’re given the go-ahead, but that it might take a week for others.

Experts say the states that have sent no November benefits already, such as South Carolina and West Virginia, will likely be the quickest.

But there’s a complication. Sixteen states have loaded the EBT cards used in SNAP with partial benefits. Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst with the advocacy group Share Our Strength said some of those states might run into technical hurdles to issue the remaining amount.

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Delays in benefits can be a problem for recipients

Even if there’s some clarity that benefits are on the way, exactly when they arrive will matter to millions of Americans.

About 42 million lower-income Americans receive SNAP benefits, on average about $190 monthly per person. Many say the benefits don’t and aren’t intended to cover the full cost of groceries in a regular month, even with careful budgeting.

It’s worse when benefits are delayed.

Doretha Washington, 41, of St. Louis, and her husband have themselves and six children to feed and not enough money to cover that cost. Her husband works servicing heating and cooling systems, but the family still needs SNAP to get by. They had received nothing in November, although Missouri said Tuesday that partial benefits would be issued.

“Now it’s making things difficult because we can’t pay our bills in full and keep food in here,” Washington said this week. “I’m down to three days of food and trying to figure out what to do.”

She has been rationing what they have.

Other people have turned to food charities but are sometimes finding long lines and low supplies.

Cutting off funds left state governments scrambling

The USDA told states Oct. 24 that it would not fund the program for November if the shutdown continued. That left states scrambling. Most Democratic-led states sued to have the funding restored.

Some Democratic and Republican-led states launched efforts to pay for SNAP benefits using state money, boost food banks and deploy the National Guard to help with food distribution. Another group of states used their money allotted for SNAP benefits only after a judge ordered the Trump administration to cover the full cost for the month.

The legislation to reopen the government passed by the Senate on Monday calls for states to be reimbursed for spending their funds to run programs usually paid for by the federal government.

It’s not immediately clear, though, which situations might qualify in the case of SNAP.

In the meantime, the USDA told states Tuesday that it would reimburse them for paying out partial SNAP benefits under a system where recipients get up to 65% of their regular allocations — and even states that paid the full amount can receive partial reimbursements. It also said it would not reduce the amount on cards for recipients in states that paid full amounts.

Democratic-led states that sued for benefits to be made available said in a filing Wednesday that the late-arriving information “illustrates the chaos and confusion occasioned by USDA’s multiple, conflicting guidance documents.”

Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck and David A. Lieb contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6% instead of rising to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday.

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The agencies said the decision follows recommendations from the FAA’s safety team, after a “rapid decline” in controller callouts. The flight disruptions were implemented during the government shutdown, the longest in history.

The 6% limit will stay in place while officials assess whether the air traffic system can safely return to normal operations, the agencies said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said safety remains their top priority and that all decisions will be guided by data.

Since Friday the restrictions took effect last Friday, more than 10,100 flights have been canceled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. The FAA originally planned to ramp up flight cuts from 4% to 10% of flights at the 40 airports.

The FAA said that worrisome safety data showed flight reductions were needed to ease pressure on the aviation system and help manage worsening staffing shortages at its air traffic control facilities as the shutdown entered its second month and flight disruptions began to pile up.

Unpaid for more than a month, some air traffic controllers have begun calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs — leaving more control towers and facilities short-staffed.

The FAA’s list of 40 airports spans more than two dozen states and includes large hubs such as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. The order requires all commercial airlines to make cuts at those airports.

By JOSH FUNK

California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after the Trump administration raised concerns about people in the country illegally improperly receiving licenses to drive a semitruck or a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn’t the reason.

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Newsom said the revocations are for violations of state law, but he didn’t provide specifics.

Both the Democratic governor’s office and the Republican Trump Administration’s Transportation Department agreed that these licenses violated the existing standard that were in place before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently tightened the rules following a nationwide commercial driver’s license audit launched after a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.

Fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year also highlight questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver last month that killed three more people only added to the concerns.

California state transportation officials didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking more details about why these licenses are being revoked.

Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state had acted improperly even though the state had previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses the state had issued after Duffy raised concerns.

Duffy previously imposed new restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for one of these commercial driver’s licenses. He said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy has taken action against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The reviews in the other states have been delayed by the government shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten up their standards.

Duffy revoked $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English language requirements for truckers, and he reiterated Wednesday that he will take another $160 million from the state over these improperly issued licenses if they don’t invalidate every illegal license and address all the concerns. But revoking these licenses is part of the state’s effort to comply.

″After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said. ”This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose licenses are being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government.

“Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Newsom’s spokesman Brandon Richards said.

The new rules for commercial driver’s licenses that Duffy announced in September make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business. But the rules won’t be enforced retroactively, so those 190,000 drivers will be allowed to keep their commercial licenses at least until they come up for renewal.

Those new requirements were not in place at the time these 17,000 licenses were issued. But these drivers were given notices that their licenses will expire in 60 days.

Duffy said in September that investigators found that one quarter of the 145 licenses they reviewed in California shouldn’t have been issued. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after.

Newsom’s office said the state followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about issuing these licenses to noncitizens.

Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this report from Sacramento, California.