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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's recent travel to Virginia, Texas, and New Mexico provided an opportunity to meet with Native American tribes about their growing frustration with the federal government's failure to include them when making decisions about land management, energy development, and the protection of sacred sites.
The first Native American cabinet secretary in history, Haaland said on her first day on the job, "I want the era where tribes have been on the back burner to be over, and I want to make sure that they have real opportunities to have a seat at the table." So far, Haaland has met with 130 of the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes as she seeks to overhaul a federal tribal consultation system that critics refer to as a check-the-box exercise.
The U.S. Constitution, along with various treaties and statutes, requires the federal government to consult meaningfully and in good faith with Native American and Alaska Native tribes when making decisions or taking action that has the potential to impact them. However, a 2019 report from a government watchdog found some federal agencies lacked respect for tribal sovereignty or didn’t have enough resources for effective consultation. A congressional committee hearing is scheduled next week to consider a bill authored by Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva that would codify a framework for tribal consultation that would also insulate the process from changes in administration.
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I think that part of what we need to do is become latter-day Noahs and build ‘arks’ in the shape of parks, refuges, protected areas, and reserves to support the preservation of the most beautiful and most diverse aspects of the biota. The more arks we launch into this pretty inhospitable-looking sea of the future, the more chance we’ll get through to the other side.”
