Remarks by
BG William E. Rapp
Division Commander
Northwestern Division
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Tribal Nations Community of Practice
Kansas City, MO
5 November 2008
Good afternoon. I’m honored to be here today. Your presence at this event is a wonderful testament to both an agency and individual commitment to meeting our moral and legal obligations to our tribal partners.
About 562 of them . . . if you’re counting.
That’s a tall order by any measure, particularly with relationship-building, where consistency and integrity in personal communications is crucial.
Yet, it is primarily because of the Tribal Nations program that we have seen the formation of close, consistent, and coherent relationships with Native American groups and governments.
From an historical perspective, it has just been 15 years since the first Native American coordinator position was established in 1992 in Omaha District.
Today, there are more than 45 tribal liaisons throughout the Corps, and tribal outreach has grown in scope and criticality. Some of you are full-time liaisons, others dual-hatted, and some simply assigned liaison duties because of job fit, personality, or passion.
No matter how you manage it, yours is an incredibly important job.
The first milestone in the field, you may recall, was reached in 1994 when Northwestern Division Engineer, MG Ernie Harrell, instructed his district commanders to each appoint a Native American Coordinator to establish open, free-flowing dialogues with tribal governments.
Weeks later, President Clinton issued a landmark executive memorandum instructing executive departments and agencies to ensure government-to government communication with federally recognized tribes.
In 1998, Chief of Engineers, LTG Joe Ballard, issued a policy letter to Corps commanders on Indian Sovereignty and government-to-government relations with tribes.
Six Tribal Policy Principles were developed in consultation with 186 tribes. They provide a practical and simple guideline for everyone in the Corps to follow when developing new projects and communicating with Native Americans.
The principles expressed at that time continue to guide our tribal policy today:
- Recognize tribal sovereignty
- Uphold our trust responsibilities
- Respect government-to-government relations
- Ensure pre-decisional and honest consultation
- Foster self-reliance, capacity building and growth among tribes and
Protect and preserve cultural resources, comply with NAGPRA, and ensure access to sacred sites.
Across the Corps and across the country, there is a growing emphasis on conserving natural resources, achieving environmental harmony, and recognizing our responsibility to consider future generations –- concepts that our tribal partners embraced centuries ago.
Clearly the tribes, with their knowledge of, and respect for, natural resources and the environment, have an instrumental role to play in helping us find solutions to water resource and eco-restoration challenges.
We take our responsibility for sustainability and collaboration very seriously. Your charge - as Tribal Liaisons - is to continue to help shape our national conscience and be in the forefront of Corps’ support for tribal rights to self-government and self-determination.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon you, as our eyes and ears to:
- Freely communicate your issues and concerns to your commanders and senior leaders.
- Help us generate new ideas and problem-solving approaches.
- Work with us to reduce misunderstandings and misperceptions with our tribal stakeholders.
- Share with us your insights on cultural resources and traditional cultural properties.
- Encourage team and partner-based forums to address the work being done.
- Educate our workforce on cultural sensitivities.
As District and Division Tribal Liaisons,
You know that tribal relationships are a high priority at all levels in the Corps - from the field to higher headquarters.
You know how to get the right people involved.
You know how to bring matters to your command’s attention so they are not ignored or flounder in red tape.
Tell us, then, how we can improve the process for consultation and cooperation. I promise you that we will listen closely.
Building those relationships over the years has been mutually beneficial for all parties -- we have a growing Tribal Nations program and a coordinated policy to govern our working with Native Americans. As a result, we’ve made great progress in a number of areas. Let me give you some examples:
The United Southern and Eastern Tribes recently honored four Corps districts (Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville and Mobile) by passing a resolution honoring them for the progress they’ve made in resolving regulatory issues.
South Pacific Division –partnering with tribes on ecosystem restoration on the Rio, Salado, Gila, and Rio Grande rivers. We’re beginning to see Congressional support for cost-shared tribal infrastructure and ecosystem projects.
Jacksonville District – has newly-crafted model agreements on expediting permit processing in Seminole and Miccasukee Country.
Alaska District – starting to work with Tribes on permitting a natural gas pipeline.
Omaha District - For nearly five years, they worked with tribes on a Programmatic Agreement under Section 106 of the National Historical Preservation Act. The agreement addressed scope, size, and magnitude of effort for all cultural resources in the Missouri River Basin. It worked so well that, in 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded USACE, Northwestern Division, 20 tribes, and four state offices a special award for their consultation efforts.
Portland District - Though Tribes and village residents waited more than 50 years for promised improvements to living conditions to Celilo Village near The Dalles, Oregon, they now have new streets and homes, a longhouse, administrative and education buildings, and new water and waste systems.
Northwestern Division – After 2 years of collaboration with states, tribes and other federal agencies, we signed a 10-year agreement - the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The focus is on recovery strategies to improve survival of threatened and endangered fish as well as other fish stocks.
Another milestone -- streamlining the process of repatriation and reburial of Native American remains and cultural items. We developed two plans, now being implemented, in response to Northwestern tribes’ requests to increase the efficiency and consistency in applications of the NAGPRA repatriation process throughout our Division.
There are many, many other examples of similar accomplishments in every Corps office. Tribal Liaisons have played a central role in making all of these successes possible.
And, as our ‘boots on the ground,” you can help spread the word even more widely about opportunities for Native American businesses and Native American employment with the Corps.
We have the largest workload in our history and it brings expanded opportunities for Native-American-owned small businesses.
In Fiscal Year 2008, Native American-owned small businesses contributed significantly to our ability to execute our mission. Nationwide, the Corps awarded more than $1.3 billion in contracts to Native American firms -- nearly all to Native American Small Businesses.
As we enter FY09 with another record breaking year for work, we will continue to call upon capable Native American small business firms to partner with us to meet our Nation’s critical water infrastructure, environmental restoration, green building, homeland security and military needs.
However, it’s not just tribal business we seek – but a more diverse representation of talent in our federal work force. As baby boomers retire, the face of our workforce is changing.
We are now targeting some of our recruiting efforts at colleges with minority populations and with professional engineering and science organizations, including the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, where we were represented just last week.
Our need, however, goes far beyond engineers – we need tribal liaisons, park rangers, project and program managers, archeologists, biologists, and budget analysts, to name a few.
There are also a number of programs to help our veterans and wounded warriors coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan find jobs in the federal work force.
By integrating diverse perspectives and experiences into our policies, programs, and communications, we become a more strategic, desirable organization and better positioned to develop feasible solutions in a global environment.
I leave you with this thought, attributed to Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe who said . . . “the measure of civilization is not how tall its buildings of concrete are, but how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.”
That is our mission and our future.