Research Tools: “New Online Collection Seeks to Foster Native Co-Stewardship of Public Lands”

From Boise State Public Radio:

In 2021, the departments of Interior and Agriculture issued a joint order calling for agreements to co-steward federal lands with tribal governments, and to incorporate Indigenous knowledge.

It called for these arrangements “where Federal lands or waters, including wildlife and its habitat, are located within or adjacent to a federally recognized Indian Tribe’s reservation, where federally recognized Indian Tribes have subsistence or other rights or interests in non-adjacent Federal lands or waters, or where requested by a federally recognized Indian Tribe.”

Earlier this year, an online repository of such agreements was compiled by a number of organizations, including the Colorado-based Native American Rights Fund. It’s hosted by the University of Washington.

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“The repository is basically the place to get the bricks to build that bridge,” said Ada Montague Stepleton, a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund. “It’s the raw materials you need to understand what are the legal mechanisms that allow for these types of arrangements to exist on the land.”

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