When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans a project, it is important to get the necessary steps in place before, during and after implementation. Depending on the project, meeting with indigenous tribes is an important step in gathering input and ensuring the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources. This is vital to the process and completion of a project.
“It is important to develop and maintain the working relationships between representatives of a federal agency and tribes with areas of interest overlapping the jurisdiction of that agency,” explained Kelsey Myers, Ph.D., RPA District Archeologist & Tribal Liaison who works for the Environmental Planning Branch of the Regional Planning and Environmental Division – North at USACE Rock Island District. “This allows agencies to meet the requirements of federal laws and fulfill the trust responsibility of the United States government to federally-recognized tribes as sovereign nations.”
Brant Vollman, Archeologist with the Rock Island District’s Regulatory Division, explained the importance of working with tribes.
“For the tribes, this is their culture; they have a whole different mindset in how they approach these things,” stated Vollman. “It brings another perspective to the table that we don’t have. I reach out to a lot of different people when I work on a regulatory project. Obviously we look at the applicant, but we have to also look at the bigger picture and so the benefit for us is that we get that other view to put into our project.”
Myers stated the process for meeting requirements of federal projects and preserving tribal sovereignty, heritage and resources is much more effective when the interests of both USACE and tribes are considered.
“Understanding other cultures, is so important,” Vollman added. “Our current focus is trying to build our relationships, and for our district, it’s different because a lot of our tribes are not resident. We are dealing with their ancestral lands.”
According to Vollman, the Iowa, Osage, Muskwaki, Miami, and others were in the Rock Island District at one time or passed through the area years ago. Our district does not share space with them the way other districts do however it is important to remind people that there were other cultures before us that had a big influence on the area.
The Rock Island District works with many different tribes, “Depending on the area in which a project is located, there may be as few as one tribe or upwards of 45 tribes included in consultation correspondence,” said Myers. “Because all tribes were removed historically from the Rock Island District, except the Sac and Fox Tribes of the Mississippi in Iowa (Meskwaki), and those who remain are not on federal land, our consultation involves development of a list of interested parties for each locality. These are determined by the tribes themselves in consultation, based on treaty cessions, oral histories, and other sources of information.”