land management

Tribal Land Leasing: Opportunities Presented by the HEARTH Act and Amended 162 Leasing Regulations

Producer
Ian Record
Year

This NCAI webinar discussed amendments to the Department of the Interior's 162 leasing regulations as well as practical issues for tribes to consider when seeking to take advantage of the HEARTH Act (Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Home Ownership Act of 2012)...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Begaye, Karis and Matthew C. Kirkland. "Tribal Land Leasing: Opportunities Presented by the HEARTH Act and Amended 162 Leasing Regulations." National Congress of American Indians. March 29, 2013. Webinar. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHI5BHyLrWI&feature=youtu.be, accessed April 1, 2013)

Indigenous Land Management in the United States: Context, Cases, Lessons

Year

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is seeking ways to support First Nations’ economic development. Among its concerns are the status and management of First Nations’ lands. The Indian Act, bureaucratic processes, the capacities of First Nations themselves, and other factors currently limit the ability of First Nations to add lands to reserves or to use their lands more effectively in productive and self-determined economic activity.

As it confronts these issues, AFN has been interested in how Indigenous land-management issues are being addressed by Native nations in the United States. What is the status of Indigenous lands in the U.S.? Do Native nations in the U.S. face similar challenges to those facing First Nations? Are Native nations in the U.S. engaged in practices that might offer ideas or lessons for First Nations?

There are substantial historical, legal, and political differences between the situations of Native nations in Canada and the U.S. But there also are substantial similarities. In both countries, land has been a pivotal issue–in many ways the pivotal issue–in the history of Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations. In both countries, despite massive land loss, Native nations retain remnant land bases with varying potential for economic development. In both countries, Native nations fiercely defend their remaining lands, seek to expand them, and are determined to exercise greater control over what happens on those lands.

This report addresses the status of Native lands in the U.S. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Overview of the U.S. Context,” reviews the history of Indigenous lands and provides an overview of current Indian land tenure and jurisdiction. Part 2, “Meeting the Land Management Challenge,” specifies the primary challenges facing Native nations in the U.S. as they attempt to manage their lands in ways that meet their own objectives and summarizes some of the innovative practices currently in use or being developed by American Indian nations. It identifies what we believe are key features of those practices. It also summarizes some of the relevant research on the relationship between control of Native lands and socioeconomic outcomes. Finally, it offers some recommendations based on the U.S. experience...

This report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Assembly of First Nations.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Cornell, Stephen and Miriam Jorgensen. "Indigenous Land Management in the United States: Context, Cases, Lessons." A Report to the Assembly of First Nations. Grogan|Cornell Consulting. Tucson, Arizona. December 2011. Report.

Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Land Title and Records Office

Year

With the ultimate goal of seeing a time when Native people and nations once again own and manage the land within the boundaries of every reservation as well as those lands that are culturally important to them beyond reservations, the Tribal Land Title and Records Office keeps all records and verifies titles pertaining to the status of trust lands. Having the ability to produce reliable trust land documents and provide clear titles quickly, the Office increases housing options for citizens and enhances their opportunities to secure loans.

Resource Type
Citation

"Tribal Land Title and Records Office". Honoring Nations: 2006 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Monitors Program

Year

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is located on 2.3 million acres of land in the central regions of North and South Dakota. Land issues rose to the forefront of tribal concerns after events such as allotment, lands flooding after the Army Corps of Engineers built a series of dams adjacent to the Tribe, and years of drought that caused drastic changes to a major river. Allotment meant that many sacred sites were no longer on lands controlled by the Tribe. Dropping water levels in the river, reservoirs, and lakes exposed culturally significant sites long covered by water. Dispersed over a massive land base, these numerous cultural and archeological sites were subject to looting and abuse. In 2000, using its authority to manage, protect, and preserve tribal property, the Tribe’s Historic Preservation Office established a Tribal Monitors Program. Archeologically trained personnel, working with tribal elders, identify and monitor these significant sites. Additionally, they see that the sites, the artifacts within them, and any exposed human remains are dealt with in a culturally appropriate way. The Tribe is managing and protecting its lands while preserving the spiritual and cultural heritage and resources that the nation truly depends on for future generations.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Tribal Monitors Program." Honoring Nations: 2005 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2006. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Miccosukee Tribe Section 404 Permitting Program

Year

The reservation lands of the Miccosukee Tribe lie largely within the Everglades National Park. Development on these lands is subject to elaborate regulations by a host of federal agencies that hindered development and other uses of their lands by the Miccosukee people, including the building of traditional dwellings and family gardening. Tribal citizens had to negotiate a time-consuming, regulatory maze almost every time they engaged in land-use activities. With the Section 404 Permitting Program, the Tribe set out to streamline the regulatory process and, more importantly, to win for itself a stronger role in regulatory activity. By contracting on-reservation authority from the US Environmental Protection Agency to issue land permits, enforce environmental codes, and manage permit violations, the Miccosukee Tribe is not only enabling its citizens to improve their own homes and engage in traditional cultural activities, but it is also expanding the reach of the Tribe’s own governmental powers.

Resource Type
Citation

"Miccosukee Tribe Section 404 Permitting Program". Honoring Nations: 2005 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2006. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Honoring Nations: Cedric Kuwaninvaya: The Hopi Land Team

Producer
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Year

Former Chairman of the Hopi Land Team Cedric Kuwaninvaya presents an overview of the tribal subcommittee's work to the Honoring Nations Board of Governors in conjunction with the 2005 Honoring Nations Awards.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Kuwaninvaya, Cedric. "The Hopi Land Team." Honoring Nations Awards event. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Tulsa, Oklahoma. November 1, 2005. Presentation.

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"[Hopi language]. Greetings from the Hopi Tribe to the Honoring Nations Advisory Board and honored guests. It is with great honor and privilege to deliver our final presentation to you. The Hopi Land Team is a subcommittee of the Hopi Tribal Council and has delegated authority to develop land policy, to explore and administer the best and most favorable uses of our natural and water resources and to seek and purchase viable business and land opportunities. I would like to recognize the current Hopi Land Team members: Ms. Marilyn Masayesva from the village of Bacavi who's our Vice Chair, Denny Humetewa from the upper village of Moenkopi, Jack Harding, Jr. from the village of Kykotsmovi, John Polela from the village of First Mesa, Leon Carew from the village of Mishongovi, and Wayne Taylor, Jr. who is the Chairman of the Hopi Tribe. My name is Cedric Kuwaninvaya. I am from the great village of Sipaulovi and the Chairman for the Land Team here.

A fundamental principle consistently exercised by the Hopi Tribal Council is our innate responsibility to preserving our homeland as an act of inherent sovereignty. As the original inhabitants of the isolated desert terrain of our aboriginal lands in the Southwest, the Hopi Land Team has focused its efforts on the restoration of our aboriginal lands, to restore free access to shrines, culture and religious sites balanced with contemporary goals of economic development and tribal self-sufficiency. The Hopi Tribe will soon be transferring up to 420,264 acres of acquired lands into trust. Since the passage of the Hopi-Navajo Land Settlement Act in 1996, much thought and planning has taken place to select fee, state and U.S. Forest, BLM lands that lie within our aboriginal lands. Although these lands do not encompass the original extent of our aboriginal lands, the acquisition of these lands symbolically replenish lost lands and more importantly regain our inherent land stewardship responsibility handed down since time immemorial. Moreover, these acts of the Hopi Tribe strategically lay the path to search new opportunities for economic development and to build a promising future for the Hopi people.

The purchase of lands is balanced with the purchases of business concerns such as commercial retail properties, a cattle-ranching business providing a product to the premium beef market, a bed-and-breakfast business, and a full truck stop serving the traveling public and commercial fleets off Interstate 40. Since the year 1998, these businesses have returned approximately three million dollars in profits to the general fund of the Hopi Tribe, which comprise approximately two percent of the annual general fund budget each year. The funds are then allocated to the Hopi villages for village projects such as elder and youth programs and to the Hopi tribal government for its operations. A comprehensive land management plan will govern the development of the newly acquired lands. The resources on these lands include hunting, fishing, boating, cattle grazing leases, recreation, power line rights of ways, management of cultural sites, a utility-scale wind energy farm and a potential utility-scale solar energy farm. These new economic development opportunities will generate revenue, create jobs, and enhance the portfolio of the Hopi Tribe.

The long-term goals of the Hopi Tribe and the plans to manage the development of the newly acquired lands and business concerns will be overseen by the Hopi Economic Development Corporation, a chartered corporation. In addition, our Wildlife Endowment Fund will provide the core funding for wildlife management on all Hopi lands. More importantly, as the picture shows, the most significant opportunity is the strengthening of the Hopi Tribe's ability to continue the practice of long-held religious, cultural and traditional practices. As the lands acquired formally aboriginal lands include eagle shrines, cultural sites, sacred trails, access to herbs, plants and wildlife used in our religious ceremonies. The future of the Hopi rests on its resources. Therefore the Land Team drives forward the concept that land is the foundation for Hopi beliefs and values and in the modern context an investment in the future. The growth and stability of the Hopi people rests on the proper activities of the Hopi tribal government and the Land Team serving as the enforcer for the tribe's responsibilities and vision. We remain committed to preserving our homeland and stand strong on the principle of preserving the good things of Hopi life and dealing with the modern problems with the United States government and with the outside world. [Hopi language]."

Alfreda Mitre:

"First of all, I want to say I'm very jealous of the Hopi Tribe's exclusive right to identify and select and purchase land and then have that land transferred into a trust status. Not many tribes have that opportunity. As a tribe, a small tribe in Nevada, we struggle very hard to acquire our traditional lands back so I want to first of all congratulate the Hopi Tribe and the team here for all of their work. Out in...throughout the United States you have tribes that are purchasing back their homelands and often are accused of ‘reservation shopping,' looking for convenient locations for economic development. Could you elaborate a little bit on how the selection of lands to be purchased or acquired are made?"

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"In Hopi, our elders have always told us where our lands had extended previously into the four western states and so with that knowledge when we were having a dispute with our neighboring tribe there, we had this dispute for over 100 years, and how we got acquisition of our lands back, we went to court and fought over this trying to get our aboriginal lands back. So through a congressional act we acquired...the Congress allowed us to get up to 500,000 acres that we could put into trust. So through the congressional mandate, that's what happened with our tribe. And once when we were given the authority to go out buying land, we looked at the land, what was on the land -- including water rights -- because we needed water to survive and look at that in terms of putting an investment into the future for our young people."

Alfreda Mitre:

"The next part of the question is, given that there aren't too many tribes that have the same opportunity that the Hopi's have, what advice would you have to tribes in terms, should this opportunity become available to them, what advice do you have for them?"

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"I guess the advice I have for them is make sure you know your culture, your traditions because everything hinges on that and the places where you're going to identify that maybe once identified to your people. Be aggressive, pursue it because we all know that the federal government took our lands away and because of treaties or other tribes that are under the IRS or IRA [Indian Reorganization Act], they owe us a lot so I would advise that the people in the tribes pursue it aggressively."

Elsie Meeks:

"I have a question for you. Congratulations on being one of the finalists and for the work you've done. What do you see as the next phase in this process? What are your next goals? Is it more land purchase, is it trying to get businesses profitable or what..."

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"Right now, we have a limit of acquiring up to 500,000 acres to put into trust so we're still going to be looking for lands cause it's still available to us. The other part is also looking at economic opportunities. Right now we have established an economic development corporation and all of the purchases that we've made will transition into that corporation, so they're the experts at doing business so that part will be transitioned. The other part is, yes, a lot of education needs to be done at our local level because all of these years we've had our lands taken away and the Hopi people have been stretched out, put a lot of money into trying to get our lands back, a lot of time and effort has been put into that. Now they need to feel relaxed and there needs to be a lot of educating at the local village level whereby we tell them, ‘Yes, we are gaining our aboriginal lands back and you can make use of it of how you made uses of them before, a long time ago.' There's still a lot of challenges and opportunities out there for the Hopi people."

Oren Lyons:

"The land dispute between Navajo and Hopi is an old one. What was it that made the breakthrough to work together? How did you do that?"

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"There's one that's called the 1882 Land Case. That one we went to Congress to settle. Then there's another one that's called the 1934 Case. That one has been in court for a lot of years, but I think what the tribes decided to do was rather than having the court settle it because the courts don't know how we live on Hopi, how the Navajos live their lives. We came together with the Navajo Tribe and said, ‘This is our land, these are our people, we know what's going on with our lives. We don't want the federal government or the courts to settle this.' So we came together and we...what happened from that was we had a compact on the different areas where the tribe goes into the other tribe's lands to get herbs or do religious activities there. So that's how this one came about and right now the Hopi Tribe has approved the 1934 compact and it's before the Navajo tribal council. So if they approve it then that's the end of our land disputes that we have."

David Gipp:

"Where is the bed-and-breakfast ranch that John Wayne used to own?"

Cedric Kuwaninvaya:

"That's located in Eager, by Springerville in Arizona. I understand John Wayne turned several times in his grave when he heard that the Indians had conquered his ranch."

Honoring Nations: Tim Mentz and Loretta Stone: Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Monitors Program

Producer
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Year

Tim Mentz and Loretta Stone of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Monitors Program present an overview of the program's work to the Honoring Nations Board of Governors in conjunction with the 2005 Honoring Nations Awards.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Mentz, Tim and Loretta Stone. "Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Monitors Program." Honoring Nations Awards event. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Tulsa, Oklahoma. November 1, 2005. Presentation.

Loretta Stone:

"In the year 2000, the Tribal Monitors Program was instituted and partially funded through a programmatic agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers. The Tribal Monitors cover 2.3 million acres of land within the Standing Rock Reservation, which includes land covering two states, North and South Dakota. The sites we protect, survey and document are varied. Sites included are archaeological, which are burial, spiritual, sacred, village and massacre sites; historic, which would include Pre Pick-Sloan Dam; and paleontology, which includes at least 11 dinosaur sites all within Hell Creek Formation. Of these 11 sites, Tribal Monitors have discovered four. We have 66 documented village sites and the oldest one on Standing Rock is known as Potts. This village is estimated to be between 11,000 and 14,000 years old. Because of the site's documents age and it is along the river, it is a vulnerable site. This site is layered upon previous villages spanning thousands of years so this draws serious looters. Most of our villages run along the bank of the Missouri River. Ensuring that these sites are protected and treated with respect consumes a lot of our time but there are also numerous sites within the interior of Standing Rock that require our attention as well. The elders that we rely on have shared knowledge and purpose regarding effigies and inlaid sites. Their construction was and is the foundation of our spirituality. The determination of our spiritual leaders has withstood hundreds of years of weather, cattle, looting and neglect. Our spiritual people made sure that they had left visual reminders of our obligations to ourselves as well as our people. The elders within our communities have helped the Tribal Monitors understand the history and the stories associated with each of these sites. With regards to documented effigies, we have three turtles, one salamander and five snakes. The 400 documented inlaid sites consist of constellations, ring sites, rattles, medicine wheels and sundials to name a few. All of these particular sites held powerful spiritual reminders for all that utilized them. They serve as markers of where we are spiritually and where we need to be. They are presently being cared for by family and tribal members, just as they had been for hundreds of years. They are fed and prayed with perpetuating the cycle of spirituality. The Tribal Monitors have documented 10 individual massacre sites. These sites don't contain one or two burials but hundreds. These sites are particularly vulnerable because of the documented notoriety. Documented massacres within Standing Rock include but are not limited to the Crow, Arikara and Sioux Bands. We as Tribal Monitors keep a close eye on these sites because they are river sites with easy accessibility. We have 40 documented burial sites and the largest is Rocky Ridge. This site contains over 1,000 burials spanning over two miles of interconnecting hilltops. Rocky Ridge is both powerful and spiritual and a constant reminder of why we as Tribal Monitors do what we do. Rocky Ridge has had minimal site damage either by cattle or looting and it is the most well preserved site on Standing Rock. Rocky Ridge defines what we do because of the magnitude of the site. Within Rocky Ridge there are burials, sundials, crescent moons representing fasting sites, there is a stone alignment encompassing a hilltop; although it is now partially intact, it remains a powerful symbol of determination. Four of the five snake effigies are found on Rocky Ridge. The snakes encompass the base of two hills and are facing each other. The snakes represent the animal nations. Rocky Ridge contains a wealth of history and spiritual information. All of our dinosaurs are located within Hell Creek Formation. Because of the isolation and the distance of these sites, it can take a day to go out and check and monitor them. Because of the badland type terrain, it is usually impossible to go out and check with a vehicle. It's more feasible to use ATV. Of the 2.3 million acres, less than two percent has been surveyed, so in regards to inventory we have taken and documented 1,155 sites."

Tim Mentz:

"The Tribal Monitors Program continues to be a growing tribal regulatory function for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Other tribes with a certified Tribal Historic Preservation Office are using their cultural knowledge to assist in the betterment of stewardship of their lands and sites and preserving and managing cultural and spiritual areas similar to how our ancestors once did. In our cultural resource code, the Tribal Monitors are the legal conduit representing the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer with federal agencies on federal undertakings. Within the Great Plains, the consistency of applying common law by these tribes with regulatory authority on these areas and the continued use of the natural laws of our grandmother by tribes have made federal agencies recognize the expertise of a tribal monitoring program and staff. Today, monitoring of significant cultural and spiritual areas is the only defense against looting and destruction of our cultural sites. With the identification of these sites, monitoring is the only practical way to manage these vulnerable areas. The tribal monitoring impact involving sacred and burial sites have been so great that the national policy has recently changed to adjust for more tribal involvement in management of areas significant to its people. We take pride in the fact that our program has shaped the way federal agencies are changing their management responsibilities with these areas. Because of this, we are sharing our procedural process with the other six tribes along the Missouri River to start a monitoring program this year. The regulatory authority and the jurisdiction of this office promotes good stewardship of ancient sites and allows for planned economic development in a structured process. The monitors locate and document areas significant to our tribes. Allowing our people to use spiritual areas long since standing idle has revitalized our youth and people to visit these areas. Numerous spiritual rides have taken our youth to visit these sites and to learn and understand how our ancestors once used these sites. Our spiritual riders are now making the annual Chief's Ride to include these particular areas that are very significant to our tribe. Tribes are taking control of lands within the reservations as old societies once did. These areas where our ancestors are buried and where they had their vision quests were protected by our warrior societies and were an important reason why the Indian wars occurred in the 1860s within the Great Plains and in other areas. Results of these violent wars against western expansion led to the treaty process for most tribes and the loss of using our spiritual areas' ancestral lands. With the Tribal Monitors Program expanding the responsibilities, the program has developed a plan and will create a stewardship program to put the elders, the youth, the spiritual practitioners back into the sacred areas of our reservation. [Lakota language]. 'One heart, one mind, one people.' That's our mission statement for our tribe and our office. [Lakota language]."

JoAnn Chase:

"Thank you so much. I have a great appreciation for the program. Certainly it has personal resonance for me as well as a member of the Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa Nation. I have a two-part question for you. The first part of the question has to do with what I think has been a really impressive building of relationships with a number of different entities including but not limited to some of those very federal entities and agencies which in large part have created some of the problems that you are addressing, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Forest Service and so on. I wonder if you might speak just a little bit more to how...what measures you have taken and what measures you will continue to take to really ensure the promotion and protection of and continuation of tribal sovereignty and of self determination, particularly with respect to building relationships with those agencies. That's the first part of the question. The second part of my question has to do with sustainability of the program, and I'm really pleased and honored to see your tribal chairman here, which I think is an important statement of support for the extraordinary work that you're doing. But I also know that sustaining this kind of work can be very challenging and that in large part you depend on a number of volunteers. And I'm wondering also if you would please just talk a little bit more about how...what challenges you might see and how if you...how you may address those challenges in sustainability and if in fact there are plans underway to increase even the tribal support for the program that's in place now."

Tim Mentz:

"Thank you for that question. It's one that's very rooted real deep into Indian Country. First of all, we're dealing with the common law system or the federal legislation and those enactments of laws that created if you will a shroud of uncertainty related to how a federal process or a legislative process could enhance or at least identify and address those types of areas that are most particularly sensitive to the tribes, and that's the spiritual aspect or the natural law system with that aspect of a site given within these areas. Historically, we've looked back at how we have managed to progress all the way up to 1978, where the American Indian Religious Freedom Act had shaped a different understanding from a federal perspective, particularly with federal agencies. Since that time, from 1978 until today, we still continue to struggle to educate the federal system and the federal process, particularly when they start asking questions like, 'Would you be able to give us more information? Would you give us and allow us to hear what your understanding and knowledge is in relation to this site that we're looking at?' And usually we have to separate the archaeological context of that question versus the natural law system or the system that we grew up with. Obviously we have people at our home reservations that have a different knowledge that's not paper-based or what we call a degree. So we have to separate those and have to educate the process in itself. The hurdles that we have taken, from 1978 until today, has led us to understand that we cannot quantify our spirituality. We can't quantify these certain areas that we say that are very significant to us. So it's been a long road in relation to all the federal agencies, particularly the federal land-managing agencies that can very well say that, 'You do not have a piece of paper to go along with what you're saying in relation to this site.' But we say from the other side that, 'Grandmother has taken us this far.' We understand the natural laws that come along with it bridging the culture and the language to these sites is what we promote. That does not mean that the federal process has a space for that, but now with an enactment of the NAGPRA, the Native American Grave Protection Repatriation Act, and the '92 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act has allowed us to progress to the point now where tribes are dealing with the federal agencies and we're stepping back also and looking at our people and saying, 'You know, how far do we go? How much knowledge, the sacred knowledge as we call it, do we divulge? Where's the fine line at? What can we document and what can't we document?' So those parts of that process has been included to get into what we call the consultation process of the federal system. The second part to your question is we have a number of elders, particularly our spiritual people that are now, we are setting them down and we're saying, 'Forgive us for asking these questions, but now the federal system has forced us to take a step forward and to address certain things that most generally we never talk about in public.' We don't divulge these types of sacred knowledge in public, but the question gets back to what I reiterated earlier, where's the fine line? So now we have our spiritual people actually stepping forward now and saying, 'Yes, maybe we're at the point now where we do have to document some of this knowledge that we have in order to protect these areas.' Until we can achieve that and that understanding from that perspective, it's growing now to the point that we want to have our children coming along with that process, with that discussion and now they're taking a step forward now with these youth rides, putting the horse back into these areas, putting that horse with the responsibility that leads with the horse and putting them back on the horse and getting back to the understanding of our warrior societies protected and fought these and they protected it very jealously, these types of areas. But now we're to the point, now it's the power of the pen and now bringing our spiritual people and our youth and elders together and now they're taking the point now where it's okay now to sit down and talk openly on our reservations now and talk about these things. So now we're pooling a lot of volunteers, particularly our elders that are stepping forward and saying, 'Yes, let's sit down and talk about these things,' and now creating a huge following that now is borne not only on leadership but the spiritual aspect."

David Gipp:

"One other question that I had. With what you're doing with the Tribal Monitors Program at Standing Rock, what other...how does this serve as a model for other tribes and I guess is there an effort, growing effort relative to other communities that you've had contact with on this kind of an effort?"

Tim Mentz:

"Yes, it has. Originally when we started talking about the 92 amendments we pushed for those types of procedures knowing that a procedural process has to be defined by tribes. Hence, we took those steps to know in the '92 amendments that it's okay to identify these people within the tribal structure to take steps similar to the National Historic Preservation Act that identifies Tribal Historic Preservation Officers that have [been] willing and have included in taking steps to do these types of areas and basically sit down with our people and say, 'Where are we going with this issue in relation to our cultural knowledge and our culture?' Hence that has broadened since the '92 amendments to include now that every reservation, particularly reservations, have a certain knowledge, a certain expertise and now we're bridging those gaps together and to form these types of collations and we're moving on a coalition right now in the Great Plains to gather all our cultural people and our cultural knowledge and now we have now affected and enhanced the process by bringing federal agencies and working collaboratively to educate them first off, but secondly to make them understand that we do have the expertise out there. Hence, programs are growing through the federal process, through the federal agencies that are recognizing our importance to the process, our cultural knowledge to the process, but more importantly the sustainability, that part of her question was, 'How do we sustain this process?' It's through our youth. We've got to put our youth back on the land. We have to put them back to the sites. We've got to let them take...walk off that black snake they call the pavement and they've got to walk over the hill. Hence, all these creations of these new programs that are happening on the reservations is a component that's going to not only enhance and enrich the process, but it's going to help us live on and bring those types of peoples together before that cultural knowledge is lost. Before our elders take it to the grave, we want to recapture it." 

Honoring Nations: Kristi Coker-Bias and Allen Pemberton: The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation and the Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program (Q&A)

Producer
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Year

Honoring Nations symposium presenters Kristi Coker-Bias and Allen Pemberton field questions from the audience about the Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation and the Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program.

Resource Type
Citation

Coker-Bias, Kristi and Allen Pemberton. "The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation and the Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program (Q&A)." Harvard Project on American Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. September 27-28, 2007. Presentation.

Alfreda Mitre:

"The next question is from Ben Nuvamsa, chairman from the Hopi Tribe."

Ben Nuvamsa:

"Thank you. I just wanted to thank you for all the good work that you're doing out there for Indian Country, all of you. I just have a question for Kristi Coker on your program. Most of our reservations are isolated out there and we typically have a difficult time attracting businesses, or at least the financial, the banks and so on, out on our reservations. My question to you is, your population, was that a deterrent in trying to get the banks or that kind of financial [institution]? Maybe you took the matter into your own hands, but it seems like that's something that may be a challenge for most of us. And how did you overcome that obstacle? Because we are faced with that -- we would like to have some banking institution out there, but it's because of our isolation it's often difficult for us to do that. By the way, we're Hopi, we may be short but we walk tall."

Kristi Coker:

"Well, we did take matters into our own hands. In 1994, we bought a struggling bank, a national bank, the tribe did. And why we started the Community Development Corporation in 2003 is that traditional financing, traditional financial institutions, just weren't the answer for the Native American community. It was a great enterprise for the tribe and it's a great financial institution, but so many people just needed the handholding and just were leery of banks still. And so even though we have our own bank there, there was a need for a non-traditional, flexible, self-regulated financial institution that is geared toward your mission, geared toward your market.

There's a lot you can do with a CDFI [Community Development Financial Institution]. You can do a credit union, and a credit union is the answer for a lot of Native communities. Oweesta even has some upcoming training. I'm on the Oweesta board, if you couldn't tell. But Oweesta has some upcoming training on ‘does your native community need a credit union?' And it's actually online and over the phone and so that might be something you want to get involved with. But a CDFI can do a lot, as you see. We're doing financial education, we're doing credit counseling, we're doing commercial lending, micro loans, larger loans. So we're doing loans from $2,000 up to $750,000. So we have a wide range of loans.

And we have had a tremendous amount of interest from private foundations, from the large national banks. They don't understand how to do lending in Indian Country and a lot of them, through the Community Reinvestment Act, have incentives to do this type of work. So one of the things they can do is they can fund CDFIs in Indian Country to do this work for them. If they're not interested in doing that, you could at least engage the local institutions in financial education as trainers and curriculum they may have.

I think what's so neat about the CDFI -- and the Treasury Department has been an amazing department, as far as a partnership with tribes. They have set up very comprehensive, coordinated programs and actually give you the training and technical assistance along with the money. And one of the things about being a CDFI, for those of you that don't know, our incentive, one of our incentives was for every non-federal dollar you can raise, you get that matched dollar for dollar from the Treasury. So a lot of my time goes to fundraising efforts and those sorts of things.

But I think what's so neat is the flexibility of it. It's regulated by the tribe, by the board of directors of your community development financial institution, and that it meets the needs of your people. You design it around your people. It looks many different ways. Some CDFIs are doing housing, some CDFIs are just doing IDAs [Individual Development Account] or just micro loans. You gear it toward your mission and your market, which is kind of driven by a study. It all kind of starts with a market study to determine what the needs are. Is there a housing need? Is there a business loan need? Do we have a gap?

Another thing that we're doing is even helping with gap financing for banks. A lot of the times even existing businesses that have assets, that have collateral, that have financial records, and those types of things, most of the time you can only get 80 percent financing at a bank and they just don't have 20 percent cash to inject at that time. So we're able to come in and it would actually be a bankable project through a bank and we're actually able to come and do the 20 percent.

So I think there's lots of creative things you can do and lots of opportunities and I would recommend exploring developing your private sector."

Mediator:

"Next question is from JoAnn Chase."

JoAnn Chase:

"I have a question for Red Lake. Obviously, so many of the stories that we have heard, they're very moving components to how initiatives and programs came to be. And one of the most moving ones for me, during my involvement with this program, was the fact that your own fishermen chose, they voted actually to vote themselves out of a job in economic situations which were absolutely dire. And so that told me that you obviously spent some significant time with your own community and working with the community. I'm wondering if you might just talk just a little bit more about what went into engaging folks, to the point that they would take a very deeply sacrificial decision in order to replenish the lake, and some of the aspects of the dialogue or the efforts that you, as a program, had to undertake in order to get the community to really buy and support and ultimately make very deeply sacrificial decisions."

Allen Pemberton:

"I wasn't actually at the meeting, but there was a lot of talk. Some people didn't want to do it, but I think the majority of the people seen that they just weren't getting the catches that they were in years past, and if they didn't do something now it would never come back.

I think looking at the records and some of the stuff that happened years before -- like about six years earlier we had a really big year class of female walleyes. And, as we all know, we have to have females to keep moving in this life. And there was -- the fishery guys that I talked to, they did the spawn nets every year and there was like -- they'd get like 100 males in the net and no female. And what happened was that -- If they would have just stopped like five years before, which is pretty hard for them to do because they were really catching the walleyes that year, and if they would have just stopped then, knowing what they know now, maybe we wouldn't have to quit for ten years [because] there was that nucleus of fish out there at that time, but they got hit pretty hard by the nets and stuff. And I think a lot of the people back home now, they're worried about -- that's why they told us to take a cautious look at what we do from now on. We've go to protect that resource.

One of the things the old people, the chiefs, and people called it, that lake was our freezer. As long as you have fish in there we're never going to starve. There are so many things that move to these days. Like my grandpa, he told me, there's another -- I have a hard time talking about him because I loved him. He told me, 'There's another lake under this lake.' That was one of the kind of -- the fish will come back, there's another lake under here. And a lot of people to this day still think that there is one there, but I don't know. It's kind of hard to -- it's in my heart to take care of our land. The fishermen are -- right now, they're looking at a different way of taking fish because a lot this, what happened was -- they all know it. All of them were older guys and now there's ten years of people, almost a generation of people, that didn't go out into the lake and do any fishing.

So the lake, our lake is -- I always remember what Pat Brown said, our fishery biologist, when he first came to Red Lake just before they started the recovery. He came from Wisconsin (another Packer fan), but he says to me, he said, ‘Man, I walked up to...I got to DNR [Department of Natural Resources] and I looked out on that lake and said, ‘Oh, man, how am I ever going to bring this thing back? I can't even see the other side of the lake. It's just monstrous.'' It's the sixth largest fresh water lake in the United States. He just said, ‘Oh, man, are we ever going to be able to bring it back?' It was a big initiative. And actually, the DNR took a big step forward in that. And really, Dave Connors, and there's a lot of people to thank that were non-members, but they were hired by the tribe to help us bring this lake back and it's back bigger than it ever was. The numbers show that there's more fish in our lake than there ever was.

And I think one of the things that happened throughout -- when I first got on the council we went to a game one time. I always like to tell this story. Red Lake was playing in Grand Forks, which is about 90 miles away. Basketball -- it's a big thing on our reservation. So everybody went. And we were coming home, and my wife -- we were riding down the road between Red Lake and Redbye coming home -- and I said, ‘Man, what is that on that truck?' We seen these red lights coming and I said, ‘What is that?' It's almost covering the road. And we got closer and there was a plane, there was a plane on the back of this truck. These non-members came and they flew up and down Redby, which is the district I live in and represent, and they landed on the lake and started fishing, which is -- the fishing, you can come buy a permit on our reservation to fish the small lake but the big lake is only for [band] members; only members fish that lake. So we guard that with our lives. So people are calling the cops. I suppose these guys thought, ‘Oh, these Indian tribes they don't have no game wardens. They ain't going to care if we go fish on their lake.' They knew where they were. And what they did was they landed and started fishing. And game wardens went out and arrested them, took their plane away.

They were coming down -- Then when I come home, it was like my first year on the council and we were getting bombarded, the council was, with ‘What are you going to do with this?' Because we really can't...in our laws -- it's one of the things we've been working on now -- that we can't do anything to non-members. If a non-member comes [and] punches me, we can't take him to court. The federal government would probably slap his hand and, ‘Go ahead. Go ahead and land on the lake some more if you want. It's only Indians that live down there.' But one of the things that I said at that time, I said, 'We should just keep that plane because there's going to be more people coming, thinking that they can trespass on our land.' But we said, ‘Well, we'll be good neighbors and give it back to them.' Like we've been catching heck over that for the last -- I think at the Honoring Nations deal I was telling them, I said, ‘If we would have kept that plane I could have flew out here to Sacramento. I would have been a pilot by now.' One of the things that happened after that, they did get fined a lot. It wasn't the best plane in the world. But you have to, as Indian people, you have to stand up for your rights.

We own that land in Red Lake. It's all owned in common. It's a closed reservation. We own all the land there. We have hunting and fishing rights and we never ceded our lands to the federal government. I'll just let you know that they had a game warden that was for the State of Minnesota, and it seemed like we have a pretty good relationship with them now, but this guy kind of threw like a wrench in it last spring. They didn't care about our lake before, but now that the walleyes are back, ‘Okay,' they said, ‘All right, Red Lake, you don't own that lake. You own the land under the lake.' Uh, okay? Well, they were citing some kind of court case in Montana, but those people in Montana they allotted their land. So it was more of a waterways issue. We talked about it and we said, ‘Well, Red Lake's totally different than that tribe. We own our land. And they said, ‘Well, I'm going to bring a bunch of people over there and we're going to fish on your lake.' I'll tell you, a lot of people at home said, ‘Well, bring it on.' There's going to be -- we're going to fight for our land again. If it comes to that, that's what's going to happen. But it never did. But just that part of it, we have to always be on our toes as Indian people because there's always somebody out there that wants our land. They put us on land that they didn't think anybody wanted. But it's our land and we've got to take care of it.

This guy -- I had an old man call me one time, he was an older fellow, a white gentleman and he said -- I got this call at my office --and he said, ‘Yeah, you know, I don't like that that you guys took this boat away from this guy 'cause he went across the line and then you guys had machine guns in there. The game wardens had machine guns.' And I said, ‘Well, they weren't machine guns. They were issued arms for their work. You guys were a mile onto our land. You knew where the -- we put GPS -- they had GPS ratings with the state and all this stuff. And they knew where they were at, but yet they came on to Red Lake to fish. So our game wardens had time to go all the way to Red Lake, which is about 40 miles away from the Upper Red Lake, get their boat, come back and them guys were still fishing on our side of the lake.' And this old guy tells me, he says, ‘Oh, I don't think -- then that plane. You guys kept that plane.' I said, ‘Well, we didn't keep the plane. We gave the plane back.' I said, ‘I just want to say something to you.' I said -- I was trying to do it in kind of laymen's terms and be nice to him too, but I said, ‘If you owned 100 acres and you had four or five really nice bucks on your land and I knew about it. And just before deer season I came over and shot all four of those deer...' I said, ‘How would you like it?' ‘Well, I wouldn't like it,' he said. ‘Well,' I said, ‘it's the same thing here.' I said, ‘We own this land. It's not owned by the state. It's not owned by the government. It's owned by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.' I said, ‘We all own it in common.' He said, ‘Well, I kind of understand now.' I said, ‘But one of the things that I think a lot of people don't understand is that they think that no matter what it's everybody's land, but it's not.' That's one of the things that's unique about Red Lake. And like I said, the chiefs for -- they had some real good insight to keep that land for us. And we have to -- we, as a council and people, have to protect that [because] that's our land.

I think one of the things I forgot to say earlier was that the tribe recently served notice to the Secretary of the Interior that they will no longer abide by the federal regulations governing the fishery. We are going forward and determine our own quotas. Every year it'll change depending on how many fish we have in the lake. It'll no longer be -- we won't have to go see Big Brother to say, ‘Hey, is it all right to go and take some of our own fish? Can you guys sign off on this?' I think one of the things I always laugh about, at the DNR when we went Self-Governance, they kept one person there to sign off on things. The guy didn't, the guy really didn't like what I said to him, but I always told him, ‘Oh, yeah, we better get our Indian agent in here so we can make sure that we're doing things the right way.' He didn't like that. That's about all I've got to say. Thanks."

Alfreda Mitre:

"Thanks, Al. One of the recurring themes that you're going to see throughout the symposium here is -- that's going to make this symposium a little bit different is -- the love of the land. We are who we are because of the land. The only thing American about America is us. Everything else was imported into this country and I think that's important. You can see, and you'll probably see throughout the symposium, the love for the land inspires the programs that are put forth to Honoring Nations. No one can tell our story better than we can. When westerners do something in their neighborhood that they don't like, they can move to another city, they can move to another town, they can move to another neighborhood. We are truly connected to the land and therefore no one could love the land or protect it better than we can. So that's going to be a recurring theme, and I want to again thank you all."

Catalyx and Ramona Tribe Start Work on 100% Off-Grid Renewable Energy Eco Tourism Resort

Year

Catalyx, Inc. has been contracted to be the technology provider and will team with the Ramona Band of the Cahuilla Indian Tribe to develop the Tribe's Eco-Tourism resort near Anza, Calif. The first of its kind, the Ramona Band of Cahuilla Mission Native Americans' resort is designed as a 100% off-grid renewable energy project that will employ multiple alternative energy technologies to meet 100% of its energy needs and recycle much of its own waste byproducts, such as sewage, biogas, and restaurant food waste...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Indian Country Today. "Catalyx and Ramona Tribe Start Work on 100% Off-Grid Renewable Energy Eco Tourism Resort." June 17, 2009. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/catalyx-inc-and-ramona-tribe-start-work-on-100-percent-renewable-energy-ecotourism-resort, accessed March 22, 2023)

Cast-off State Parks Thrive Under Tribal Control, But Not Without Some Struggle

Year

Rick Geisler, manager of Wah-Sha-She Park in Osage County, stands on the shore of Hula Lake. When budget cuts led the Oklahoma tourism department to find new homes for seven state parks in 2011, two of them went to Native American tribes. Both are open and doing well, but each has faced its own difficulties in the transition.

Of the seven former state parks, only Wah-Sha-She Park near Pawhuska closed during its transfer to new management. From fall 2011 until spring 2012, no one could enjoy the unique Hula Lake sunsets from the park’s rocky shoreline, or camp at the handful of sites in this remote patch of well-maintained land carved into the wilderness in northern Osage County...

Resource Type
Citation

Editor. "Cast-off State Parks Thrive Under Tribal Control, But Not Without Some Struggle." Public Radio Tulsa. April 10, 2014. Article. (http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/cast-state-parks-thrive-under-tribal-co..., accessed March 17, 2023)