WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) opened the White House 2024 Tribal Nations Summit on Monday, December 9, 2024 in Washington, DC. The annual event, reinitiated by President Biden, provides an opportunity for government and tribal leaders from the 574 federally recognized tribes to discuss ways the federal government can invest in and strengthen relationships among nations, and to ensure that the progress in Indian country has been coming for years.
During her opening statement, Haaland applauded the 400 co-stewardship agreements the Biden-Harris administration signed with Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations and consortia.
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Later on Monday, the Department of the Interior released its third annual report on tribal co-stewardship, which outlines the implementation of Joint Secretary’s Order 3403 (SO 3403) and highlights 69 new agreements the department has entered into over the past year.
SO 3403 was signed by Secretary Haaland and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the 2021 Summit, committing the agencies to tribal and federal co-management of federal lands, waters, and wildlife, including through cooperative agreements with tribal nations. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo signed the Department of Commerce as a party to SO 3403 during the 2022 Summit.
“Since time immemorial, ancestral homelands have been critical to the social, cultural, spiritual, mental and physical well-being of indigenous peoples. “Through this unprecedented number of co-stewardship agreements, the Biden-Harris Administration is demonstrating our commitment to recognize and strengthen tribes as partners in the stewardship of our Nation’s lands and waters,” said Secretary Haaland.. “These agreements have become fundamental to our work and will be critical in building our collective capacity, knowledge and expertise to develop and implement collaborative agreements for meaningful co-management of our public resources.”
In 2022, the Department of the Interior published a report on current land, water, and wildlife treaty responsibilities and authorities that can support co-stewardship and tribal stewardship, ranging from agency-specific statutes and regulations to department-wide authorities apply, to doctrines and authorities relevant to all federal agencies.
The Department of the Interior is responsible for managing millions of acres of federal lands and waters that contain cultural and natural resources of significance and value to indigenous peoples, including sacred religious sites, burial grounds, wildlife and their habitat, and indigenous resources food and food. medicines. In addition, many of these lands and waters are in areas where tribes have reserved rights to hunt, fish, gather plants, and worship under ratified treaties and other long-standing legal agreements with the United States.
This year’s co-management agreements and related efforts help convey the scope of the Department’s commitment to advancing meaningful co-management of public lands and waters. Examples include:
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Cape Cod: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (Massachusetts): A cooperative agreement with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe provides the tribe with the ability to manage and analyze required environmental information provided by offshore wind developers. Additionally, this agreement facilitates the development of proactive, best practices for managing data and information on cultural and archaeological sites of tribal significance, and integrates Indigenous knowledge and language into a model that maximizes the conservation potential of submerged ancient cultural landforms and associated archaeological resources, and facilitates work and collaboration to develop capacity for the active monitoring and documentation of offshore cultural and archaeological resources that may be affected as a result of approved activities by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
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Everglades and Biscayne National Parks: Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the National Park Service (Florida): Through a co-stewardship agreement, Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have committed to joint and cooperative efforts focused on natural and cultural resources of mutual interest to the National Park Service and the Tribe. The Biscayne National Park Agreement recognizes the right of tribal citizens to engage in traditional fishing and gathering of palm fronds and medicinally important plants within the boundaries of the park, subject to applicable laws, regulations and policies. The Biscayne National Park Agreement also governs cooperation on fisheries management and vegetation restoration.
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Gravel to Gravel: Memorandum of Understanding between Alaska Natives and Interior Bureaus (Alaska): Through the Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative, the Department is investing funds made available through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support resilient ecosystems and communities in the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound regions of Alaska and provide immediate investments to respond to the salmon crisis. This work resulted in a memorandum of understanding between the Interior Bureaus and the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, Kawerak Incorporated, Nome Eskimo Community, Native Village of Eagle, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
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Caja del Rio Plateau: Pueblo of Tesuque, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Memorandum of Understanding: Through an agreement signed in November, the Pueblo of Tesuque, the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are developing a collaborative program on New Mexico’s Caja del Rio Plateau. Through this framework, the Pueblo and its federal partners will collaborate in natural resource management that sustains Pueblo cultural lives and works to ensure protection, conservation, and access to culturally significant Pueblo sites within the boundaries of lands managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land. Management.
Under Secretary Haaland’s leadership, new guidance was issued to improve federal management of public lands, waters, and wildlife by strengthening the role of tribal governments in federal land management. The Department is committed to ensuring that decisions regarding co-stewardship will continue to provide safeguards for traditional subsistence, cultural practices, trust interests, and treaty rights for tribes.
About the Author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded the Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print category\/ online by the Native American Journalists Association. He is a member of the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net.
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
