Following the U.S. Census Bureau’s announcement to shorten its response deadline by one month, experts and Native Americans in Montana fear tribes will see a “historic undercount,” which could curtail funding for tribal programs for the next decade.

After temporarily halting field operations in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19, in April, the Census Bureau announced it would extend the deadline for counting people from July 31 to Oct. 31. However, in August the Bureau announced it would move its deadline back to Sept. 30.