New opportunities for federally recognized tribes in cooperative and collaborative partnerships to manage federal lands and resources are being proposed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
The matter was the subject of a presentation to the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Fairbanks on Oct. 21. There Jewell announced the order encouraging cooperative management agreements and other collaborative partnerships between the Department of the Interior and tribes to further shared interest in managing federal lands and resources.
The order acknowledges that Interior already has a wide variety of cooperative management and collaborative partnership arrangements with tribes nationwide, from providing technical assistance to formal agreements. There are already numerous examples of such agreements between federal agencies and tribes that demonstrate the value of collaboration that benefit the tribes and agencies.
Within the department, the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Reclamation all have specific responsibilities, as outlined in the order. In addition to those responsibilities, the BLM, NPS and FWS have specific responsibilities associated with the Federal Subsistence Management Program in Alaska, as identified under Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, also known as ANILCA.
The order notes that the legal and trust relationship with tribal governments has been identified in the U.S. Constitution, treaties, statues, executive orders and numerous court decisions, and serves as the foundation for the department’s interaction with tribes.
The department now intends to increase opportunity for tribes to participate in management of federal lands and water’s within the department’s jurisdiction, along with the integration of traditional ecological knowledge and practices into management and operation, the order said.
This may include new opportunities for access to these resources if such access is within keeping of the bureau’s mission. Participating tribes will be responsible for deciding whether or not a cooperative agreement or other collaborative partnership with a bureau is in its interests, the order said.
The eight-page document is online at
https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/so3342_partnerships.pdf
