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Jodi Gillette blog post on tribal consultations

091709_Honoring_Nations_020.JPGBlog post by Jodi Gillette, White House office of intergovernmental affairs:

As part of the President Obama’s commitment to regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with federally recognized Indian tribes, we are pleased to update you on the implementation of the Presidential Memorandum on Tribal Consultation, which the President signed during the White House Tribal Nations Conference on November 5, 2009. The President directed federal agencies to develop plans to implement Executive Order 13175, “Consultation and Coordination with Tribal Governments.” These plans are to be developed after consultation with Indian tribes and must be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget by February 3, 2010.

Through interagency coordination and other methods, agencies are presently seeking input from tribal leaders. For example, the Department of the Interior initiated a series of consultations starting on December 1, 2009. The Department of Justice is conducting teleconference calls with tribes; please visit their website for a complete schedule of calls. Through national conference calls and in writing, the Department of Homeland Security is requesting tribal input on a draft consultation policy and a plan. The Veteran’s Administration is also requesting written tribal input. The Department of Labor will be hosting two national consultations; more details can be found on their website.

Please communicate with the agencies directly for more information, and please click here if you would like a list of agency contacts.

For general questions, please email GeneralTribalIGA@dsr.eop.gov. We encourage you to participate in these ongoing discussions, and we look forward to working together to strengthen the Nation-to-Nation relationship.

Jodi Rave

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

2 Comments

  • Doris Respects Nothing

    Wopila to the hard work of many,

    I do hope the consultation process with the Obama admin is more effective than the admin’s before him who have tried and failed. The consultation process is needed now more than ever especially with the cobell settlement and the directives within it. We, trust landowners on the Pine Ridge have always been against the Indian land consolidation act and all the amendments to as well as the Indian Probate Reform Act. We would like to see more sessions within Indian country and not only in places where trust landowners have no resources to attend with real testimony taken back to Senate Committee of Indian Affairs and higher.

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