JACKSON, Wyo. — Enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Public Affairs/Tribal Relations Specialist Randy’L Teton joined the Jan. 16 Forest Plan Symposium to advocate for increased tribal engagement during the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s (BTNF) Plan revision.
The last Forest Plan for the BTNF was published in 1990, and prepared with little tribal engagement. It wasn’t until 2000 that Executive Order 13175 created policymaking criteria requiring federal agencies to consult with tribes “when formulating and implementing policies that have tribal implications.”
According to Teton, creating space for tribal staff to be hired within the USFS and inviting participation in Forest Plans early on in the process is part of fulfilling what Teton refers to as the “trust and treaty obligations” that the U.S. government has established through legislation with the sovereign nations of this country.
Teton’s family includes the original inhabitants of the Grand Teton area, who were forcibly removed to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho. Teton acknowledges, however, that her perspective does not speak for all tribal members, and she considered her presence at the Symposium to primarily represent the USFS. Teton has been part of the newly implemented Tribal Action Plan that prioritizes outreach to tribes at the very beginning stages of Forest planning; her aim within the initiative is to create a holistic approach to ecological knowledge.
At the Symposium, Teton asked for direct invitations to be extended to local tribes to participate in Forest planning. She says a respectful gesture would be to host community meetings on reservations instead of in places like Jackson Hole, and meetings both with the people of sovereign nations and with the tribal leadership are needed.
According to Teton, despite the fact that Executive Order 13175 requires that tribes are able to provide “meaningful and timely input…of regulatory policies that have tribal implications,” standard protocol in the past has been to give information to tribes at the last minute, with 30 days to make a public comment. Teton says at that point, “it’s already too late” to truly have an impact on decision-making, and recommends the Forest Service utilize local newspapers, emails or social media pages to make information accessible more immediately to tribal communities.
“The tribes have the knowledge of the landscape.”
Randy’L Teton
“The tribes have the knowledge of the landscape…so it is really critical in today’s age that we look toward creating the space for them,” Teton said in her panel discussion.
The updated 2012 Forest Plan guidelines include requirements that tribal governments must be consulted “early” as part of the process, and areas of tribal importance must be identified. The final rule also “recognizes and does not modify prior existing Tribal rights, including those involving hunting, fishing, gathering and protecting cultural and spiritual sites.”
“It’s really an important opportunity to get that part of it right,” Dr. Martin Nie, professor of Natural Resources Policy and director of the Bolle Center for People and Forests at the University of Montana, says of tribal inclusion in the revision of the BTNF’s Plan.
According to Friends of the Bridger-Teton, the BTNF is within the ancestral range of many different Native American tribes, including the Shoshone Bannock (Panati), Eastern Shoshone (Guchundeka’ or Boho’inee’), Sioux (Lakota), Gros Ventre (A’aninin), Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), Crow (Apsáalooke), Northern Arapaho (Hinanaeina) and Assiniboine (Nakodabi) nations.
