Tribes seek more inclusion, action from US officials

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was a quick trip for U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland with stops to hike through desert scrub near the U.S.-Mexico border and to marvel at the jagged Organ Mountains before soaking in what life was like in one of the oldest settlements along a historic trade route.

For Haaland, the time spent in West Texas and New Mexico over recent days helped to highlight the work being done to conserve parts of the borderlands.

But it also marked an opportunity for Haaland — as head of the agency that has broad oversight of tribal affairs — to deliver on promises to meet with Native American tribes that have grown increasingly frustrated about the federal government’s failure to include them when making decisions about land management, energy development or the protection of sacred sites.

Haaland’s selection as the first Native American to serve in the position opened a door for tribes who pointed to a history fraught with broken promises.

“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,” Haaland said on March 17, 2021, her first day on the job.

Haaland has since met with nearly 130 of the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes as she seeks to overhaul a federal system that has limited Native American relations to a check-the-box exercise.

And while some tribes say her aspirations are admirable, others remain skeptical they will see real change and say they have yet to experience meaningful dialogue with the federal government or key decision makers.

Haaland’s department has developed a plan for improving formal consultations with tribes and established an advisory committee that will aid with communication once it’s up and running. In an effort to make consultation a hallmark of her tenure, Haaland has said she wants integration of tribal input to become second nature for her employees.

There has been some success as tribes felt heard when the Biden administration restored the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and when the U.S. Department of Agriculture pulled back an environmental impact statement that paved the way for an Arizona copper mining operation to consult further with tribes.

But frustrations persist among tribal leaders who say their conversations with the federal government have not resulted in action on the ground.

For the Ute Indian Tribe in Utah, those frustrations lie in management of the Colorado River basin as western states grapple with less water amid a megadrought and climate change. Tribes were not included in a century-old compact that divvied up the water, and the Ute tribe says it’s seeing the same exclusion now.

The tribe’s Business Committee has spent hours in meetings and preparing formal comments and says it’s tired of having to reiterate its position that the federal government must protect the tribe’s water rights or support development of water infrastructure to serve the reservation.

Committee Chairman Shaun Chapoose said he’s seen proposals, but “actual where-the-rubber-meets-the-road stuff hasn’t occurred yet, and the drought gets worse.”

There are similar sentiments among Navajo Nation lawmakers who are concerned about Haaland’s plans to make oil and gas development off-limits on federal land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico.

Advocacy groups sent a letter to Haaland on Thursday, saying more needs to be done to include tribes as her department charts a path forward for protecting culturally significant areas in northwestern New Mexico.

The Interior Department said more meetings with the Navajo Nation and other tribes are planned in April and that Navajo-language translators will be present.

In Nevada, several tribes and the National Congress of American Indians have asked the Interior Department and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to uphold a duty to engage in “robust and adequate” tribal consultation regarding plans for a massive lithium mine at Thacker Pass. So far, the tribes say that hasn’t happened.

Under the U.S. Constitution, treaties and statutes, the federal government must consult meaningfully and in good faith with Native American and Alaska Native tribes when making decisions or taking action that is expected to impact them.

However, a 2019 report from a government watchdog found some federal agencies lacked respect for tribal sovereignty, didn’t have enough resources for consultation or couldn’t always reach tribes.

Another top complaint from tribes is that they are brought in when a course of action already has been set.

“The federal government says all the right words, but their mentality is one in which they are not really doing this in a way that reflects the proper government-to-government relationship that I think tribes are orienting to when they enter into these conversations,” said Justin Richland, a professor at the University of California-Irvine School of Social Sciences.