Significance to Tribes- NTAA Documents - Related Documents - Related Links

Tribal Consultation

Overview

One of the fundamental rights of a sovereign tribal government is "government to government consultation" as outlined in Executive Order 13175 . Recognizing this one of NTAA's goals is to "encourage and support appropriate consultation with all tribal governments in accordance with tribal structures and policies." Recently in a letter to the EPA, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) stated their "fundamental request is that the federal government goes beyond dialogue and takes meaningful action to meet its responsibilities toward tribal governments. Tribal governments have a unique status in the federal system under the U.S. Constitution and numerous federal laws, treaties, and federal court decisions. Indian tribes have the power and responsibility to enact civil and criminal laws, and provide a broad range of governmental services to our citizens including law enforcement, education, health care, and management of lands the size of seven states.

EPA’s Indian Policy is perhaps the most visionary in its respect for tribal sovereignty and its understanding of the meaning of success in tribal-federal working relations. We hope to help strengthen that policy by encouraging the establishment of an agency-tribal task force to develop solutions to overcome the disparity in delivery of on-the-ground programs providing environmental protection. This task force could provide meaningful support for EPA’s direct implementation responsibilities to tribes, which include a tribal core water quality standards rule, self-determination demonstration projects of tribal environmental management modeled after the 638 programs in the Department of Interior, equitable access and support for tribes not yet participating in the EPA Information Exchange Network, and consolidation of reporting requirements for the many programs tribal environmental offices administer."