Engage Tribes in Managing Public Lands

• Author: Kevin Washburn
• Position: Dean University of Iowa College of Law
• Pages: 37-37

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | 37

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, January/February 2022.

Copyright © 2022, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Sidebar

SI DE BAR

FOR nearly 50 years, Native

American tribal nations have

been contracted to run fed-

eral programs on Indian reserva-

tions — primarily the activities of

the Bureau of Indian Affairs and

the Indian Health Service. These

programs, authorized by Congress

in an effort to promote “tribal

self-determination and self-gover-

nance,” have been phenomenally

successful. In 2021, the initiative

amounted to thousands of tribal

contracts, cumulatively worth bil-

lions of dollars. Through federal

contracting, tribes have developed



programs and to serve federal pub-

lic missions.

In 1994, Congress expanded the

authority to contract with tribes

to public land management agen-

cies, including the National Park

Service, the Fish & Wildlife Service,

and the Bureau of Land Manage-

ment. That authority was later

added to the U.S. Forest Service.

Contracting in the public lands

space has a different purpose than

supporting tribal self-governance,

but it holds great promise as a

means to engage tribal govern-

ments in public land management.

However, despite early hope for

this initiative, it has never really

gained traction.

Since 1994, tribes have only en-

tered a handful of agreements with

Fish & Wildlife, Parks, the BLM,

and the Forest Service. These have

generally been very successful, but

quite modest. None of them have

involved the actual management of

public lands.

To provide just one example,

the Grand Portage Band of Lake

Superior Chippewa on the Cana-

dian border in northern Minnesota

has a contract to provide services

for the Grand Portage National

Monument. The Band was heav-

ily involved in establishing the

monument in the 1950s, donating

much of the land on which the

monument sits. Given the remote-

ness of the area, one can imagine

the economies of scale that can

be achieved by the federal gov-

ernment working with the tribal

government and sharing infrastruc-

ture, such as a water treatment

system or a snowplow.

In such a remote place, coop-

eration is economical. However,

the Band’s annual agreements have

fallen short of co-management,

with the monument contracting

with the Band for a little more than

a quarter of the annual operation

budget. Although successful, this

program is still quite modest.

Each year, the Department of

the Interior is required by law

to publish notice of the types of

activities that can be contracted,

and a list of parks and other public

land units that are eligible for con-

tracting. That list, published in the

Federal Register in March, has not

expanded in 20 years.

Tribal nations already control

roughly 60 million acres of federal

trust land in the United States.

These are lands that tribes have

managed for centuries. Indeed, this

careful stewardship experience has

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wisdom and traditional ecological

knowledge possessed by tribes and

Native people.

Modern tribal governments are

well acquainted with federal con-

tracting rules and adept at carefully

managing federal property and

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and steward resources skillfully to

meet federal objectives. They are

very familiar with annual govern-

ment contract audits. With strong

engagement, some tribal govern-

ments may even be willing to use

their own resources to improve

facilities and functions.

With strong Native leadership

at Interior and Agriculture, the

time is ripe for greater coopera-

tion between tribes and the public

land management agencies. Interior

should identify new activities and

public land units that tribes can

contract. The department should

also conduct tribal consultations

nationally and regionally to breathe

new life into this program, which

continues to have tremendous po-

tential. USDA should do the same

with the Forest Service.

The Biden administration has

set an ambitious goal of conserving

30 percent of U.S. land by 2030.

The federal government will need

strong partners in meeting that

goal. Engaging tribal nations is one

crucial step to success.

Engage Tribes in Managing Public Lands

“With strong Native leadership at

Interior and Agriculture, the time

is ripe for greater cooperation

between tribes and the public land

management agencies”

Kevin Washburn

Dean

University of Iowa College of Law