intergovernmental affairs office

Honoring Nations: John McCoy: Intergovernmental Relations

Producer
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Year

John McCoy of the Tulalip Tribes offers advice to session participants about how to communicate tribal priorities in the intergovernmental law and policy arenas. 

People
Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

McCoy, John. "Intergovernmental Relations." Honoring Nations symposium. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Sante Fe, New Mexico. February 8, 2002. Presentation.

John McCoy:

"Good afternoon. As Andrew said, I'm John McCoy and the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Tulalip Tribes of Washington State and our physical location is 40 miles north of Seattle. Our western boundary is the Puget Sound; our eastern boundary is Interstate 5, which technically we're still considered a rural tribe, but urban areas. So that's a little bit quick history about me and Tulalip.

In our breakout session, some of the things that we covered was one, we feel it's necessary for all tribes to have a governmental affairs department. And then you all, in creating this department, you need to put someone in there, a Native American that you can trust to deliver your policy messages. That is a tall order because tribes traditionally, jobs like that they like to keep at the council level. But councils, you're extremely important to the governmental affairs process, one if you're to do the job effectively you need to travel a lot but you have some at-home issues that you need to take care of and your intergovernmental affairs department, not only do they have to do the external work, they also have to do internal work. So it's a continuous education process on your home reservation and in your local county, state, region, and federal levels.

So it's a tremendous balancing act, and it is how we function at Tulalip and from listening to Justin [Martin] from Grand Ronde, we basically operate the same way. Individuals like myself go out and deliver the message, do the heavy lifting, but when it's time to make a testimony at the legislature or maybe go to the state and federal level to sign some legislation, well, then that's where we need the tribal leader to deliver the final message. And so we need that consistency, we need your help, but we also need you at home because that work is there. Again, it's a continuous education project. We need to be involved in the local levels. Everything is grassroots, so you need to work your local communities and even still doing that, there are situations that arise like at Mille Lacs, they have a horrible situation going on right now and I wish them the best of luck 'cause I know they'll persevere. But you need to continue to work, as contentious at times as it is, you just have to keep working because at the end of the day you will prevail because...

Joe Trujillo and I were talking also in our group we were talking about what the federal budget is for Indian Country and then what the gaming revenue is. Well, yes, the gaming revenue now exceeds the federal budget for Indian Country, but what we have to be careful of and the federal government needs to understand is that yes, originally that money, the gaming and the federal dollars, yes it does start out as for Indian Country. But all of us in this room know and understand that we don't have the goods and services on our reservation to deliver what is needed. So consequently the entire community, the non-Indians benefit. Whenever you build a road on your reservation, the non-Indians benefit. Whenever you run the water line for your people, the non-Indians benefit. So there's a lot of indirect benefits that the surrounding communities get to enjoy because of the Indians. So that's one of the educational messages that you need to continue to get around to your surrounding communities because no matter what you do, they benefit. Just in your employment figures...at Tulalip we employ 1,250 people, 50 percent of them are non-Indians, although the Indians hold 74 percent of the management positions, as it should be. You deliver the medical benefits, the dental benefits and all those other things, you probably have a...your minimum wage is probably higher than the federal or the state minimum wage. So you do a lot of things, you need to get your message out and let everybody know what you're doing.

Another thing that we continue to battle in going out, when we do go out, we need the support, because these legislators will see Justin and I all the time. Every now and then we need to bring a youth or an elder with us to help deliver a message. So this is a community project. It's teamwork; you need that work from everybody to deliver these messages. And then, the other ticklish thing in the feds, Congress is running legislation. Now that basically would extremely limit the tribe's ability to participate in the campaign process. From the tribe's point of view, I think this is something that directly violates the First Amendment of free speech. There was an attempt in Washington State to...they tried to pass a bill four years ago that said, 'Foreign corporation, foreign nationals and Indians cannot participate in the political process.' Needless to say, we killed that bill. So we need to be active. Now, there are times a tribe may not be able to give any money, but you actually have the most powerful weapon there is and that is your vote. You need to get your members out to vote. And you may not have like I say the finances to make a contribution but there's two things politicians understand: it's money and votes, and not necessarily in that order. If you can deliver the votes, you can make a political statement. If you can deliver money and votes, then you can make a bigger statement. But it's teamwork; we have to work together from the culture. We need the culture because we talked quite a bit about that today. All our governments are culture-based and that is appropriate, that's the way it should be. We need our elders to tell people like me their stories because that helps me deliver the message and keep it culturally introspective."

From the Rebuilding Native Nations Course Series: "What Successful Intergovernmental Relationships Require"

Producer
Native Nations Institute
Year

Native leaders explain the importance of Native nations building their capacity to effectively engage in the development and maintenance of intergovernmental relationships with other sovereign governments, stressing that doing so is a critical component of the full exercise of tribal sovereignty. 

Native Nations
Citation

Ettawageshik, Frank. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. April 13, 2010. Interview.

Killer, Kevin. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Rapid City, South Dakota. May 24, 2010. Interview.

Marquez, Deron. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. March 26, 2009. Interview.

McCoy, John. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Cambridge, Massachusetts. September 18, 2009. Interview.

Penney, Sam. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. August 20, 2010. Interview.

Sampsel, Roy. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. August 31, 2010. Interview.

Vizenor, Erma. "Engaging the Nation's Citizens and Effecting Change: Stories from Indian Country." Emerging Leaders seminar. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. March 25, 2010. Presentation.

 

Erma Vizenor:

"We have to function outside of our reservation and our tribe. We have to deal with companies. We have to deal with the federal government. We have to deal with the states. And so we have to have structures and institutions that empower us so that we are never taken advantage of again."

Frank Ettawageshik:

"When you acknowledge that sovereignty in yourself and in others, then you have to exercise or negotiate that sovereignty with your neighbors. So what I think is here is that you're constantly working with those other sovereigns, but you need to figure out how to decide who you're dealing with and who you aren't. And so the most basic way of that is that if somebody else acknowledges you, well you can acknowledge them, but you have to have some sort of a process for that. What this clause in our constitution does is it establishes a basis for some office, or staff person, or somebody that would be akin to a state department, for instance, where there is an international relations office that deals with negotiations with other sovereigns and those types of things."

John McCoy:

"My advice to them all is to create a governmental affairs office, where these folks just work on policy, that they work with state legislatures, with county governments, with other city governments. Because you need to touch them all, because they pass laws that infringe on the tribal sovereignty. So you need to be there to educate them so that they modify their law to where it does no harm to the tribal sovereignty. They're not doing -- my personal opinion -- 99 percent of them, of these laws that infringe on tribal sovereignty, is done out of ignorance not maliciousness. It's out of ignorance. Once you inform them, educate them on the issue, then they adjust their language to where they do no harm. So they need to be at the city level, the county level, the state level, and we've always done the federal level."

Roy Sampsel:

"A part of the strength of tribal governments and tribal nation building is the capacity of that nation to perform seriously for its broader community, and for the lands, and for that seven generations, for that future. So the strength of these is to deal with them in not a casual manner but a serious manner, and to do it in such a way that you're asking the same standards that you're applying to your nation and to your government to be the means by which other governments are entering into those agreements with you. It does not do any good to say, 'Gee, I wish that our state had a better system by which people could know about Indian people and Indian tribes.' A wonderful sort of sentiment, but where's the commitment to do that? Are you going to encourage curriculum development? If curriculum is developed, is it going to get into the school systems? In other words, it's not the recognition of either the problem and/or the opportunity, it's the commitment over time to make that work."

Deron Marquez:

"Well it was once said that, 'How do you know you're a nation?' Well the answer to that was you're recognized by another nation. And so you need to forge those gaps, be it cities, counties, states or federal government, or even foreign nations. We've had visitors from China come in and visit our reservation and talk with us. Those are the things that I think nation-building leaders tackle. And while doing so, I think it's very critical when they're out there doing that, they're not just representing your nation. You're representing all nations and to act accordingly, but have the understanding that what you do -- you're authentic voice, is what I always say -- still resonates from your community and your people."

Sam Penney:

"I think first of all we need to educate ourselves and to know exactly what those other entities do and what their purpose and function and mission is. I think that's very important for a tribal leader to understand that. Then I think secondly, going out on the national state and local level and being present to represent your tribe is important as well. And I think thirdly, just continuing that dialogue with various people you meet throughout your travels. I've often found that most of the long-lasting friendships and relationships that I have is talking with people informally. May not even be during the actual meeting, it's either out in the hallway or at a luncheon, or something like that. That's where you get the one-on-one and build that personal relationship that goes a long ways and building that trust between yourself and other individuals that you're going to be working with."

Kevin Killer:

"Understand that you're coming into this with a different frame of mind, a different set of experiences than somebody else who grew up in a different part of the state who may have never have had contact with Native communities. And really empathize with that mindset because if you don't, if you hold on to what you believe in, and the other side holds on to what they believe in, then there's going to be no workability, I guess. And so if you can't work beyond what you believe or what you think you know is true, then there's going to be no compromise. There's going to be no solutions... That's the thing that I would encourage all tribal leaders to remember, is that there's always something that we can look at. We can agree on something, something that needs to be improved, especially if we're committed in this for future generations and the future of our nations, whether that's a statehood, or whether that's a Native nationhood, or [the] federal government. We're all in this together, and ensuring that that never leaves the room is that we're all in this together. So how are we going to work for everybody in the future?"