Chair Grijalva, Sen. Heinrich Introduce Two Bills to Elevate the Role of Tribal Nations, Protect Tribal Cultural Sites in Public Land Management

Press Release

Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) today announced the introduction of two House and Senate companion bills to advance Tribal management of public lands and to improve protection of sacred and cultural sites: The Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act and the Tribal Cultural Areas Protection Act.

The full text of the Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act is available here and the section-by-section is available here. A fact sheet on the bill is available at https://bit.ly/3OlTh01.

The full text of the Tribal Cultural Areas Protection Act is available here and the section-by-section is available here. A fact sheet on the bill is available at https://bit.ly/3HrZq8A.

The vast majority of federal public lands are carved out of the ancestral homelands of Tribal nations. Despite forced removal and displacement from these traditional territories, Tribes' cultural connections to these places have never been extinguished. Tribal nations and their citizens continue to exercise treaty and statutory rights to hunt, fish, and gather on federal lands. They continue to access federal lands to pray, conduct ceremonies, visit burial sites, and gather plants for traditional purposes.

Tribal governments and their citizens currently maintain rights to hunt and gather, pray, conduct ceremonies, and visit burial sites on public lands, but public land management laws fail to adequately protect these rights and interests. For example, public land on which a Tribal nation has a treaty right or sacred site may still be sold to private developers who could permanently destroy the site. In other cases, there may not be adequate resources in place to prevent theft or vandalism of cultural items or sacred sites.

The Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act and the Tribal Cultural Areas Protection Act would update current public land management laws to improve protections of Indigenous sacred sties and other cultural areas.

More specifically, the Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act will:

Prohibit the sale of public land containing a Tribal cultural site, where a Tribal nation retains treaty or other reserved rights, or that contains a former reservation.
Authorize Tribal governments to acquire public lands for public purposes.
Increase Tribal consultation in public land use planning.
Requires the consideration of the presence of cultural sites and fulfillment of treaty obligations in federal land acquisition decisions.
Require existing public land advisory boards to include at least one Tribal representative.
The Tribal Cultural Areas Protection Act will:

Establish a national Tribal Cultural Areas System to designate public lands with culturally significant sites. Tribal cultural areas would be managed to preserve their cultural values while allowing for traditional Tribal cultural use.
Direct public land management agencies to identify potential Tribal cultural areas.
Provide authority to Tribal nations in the management of Tribal cultural areas.
"There is no deed that can undo or fully compensate for this country's historical neglect and desecration of Indigenous Peoples' culture and places that are sacred to them," Chair Grijalva said. "But that doesn't mean that we should simply sit back and let history continue repeating itself. These two bills are a small step, but an important one, in giving Tribal nations the respect and authority they deserve when it comes to managing our public lands and protecting sacred and cultural sites."

"It is long overdue that we recognize that Tribes across Indian Country have ancestral sites, historical ecological knowledge, and ongoing cultural practices on our federal public lands. I'm proud to introduce these two bills to create a Tribal Cultural Areas System specifically tailored to protect Tribal cultural resources and to finally correct long-running holes in our federal laws that have put sovereign Tribal Nations on an unequal footing with State and Local governments in acquiring and managing our public lands," said Heinrich. "It's past time to end the era of land management agencies conducting Tribal consultation just to check a box. The federal government has a responsibility to communicate with and provide Tribal governments with a real seat at the table. These bills help deliver on the promise to respect Tribal sovereignty and increase protections for the culture and traditions in the ancestral homelands of Tribal Nations."

Combined, the two bills have already gained the support of a dozen Tribal nations, several Tribal organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, and the Wilderness Society.

Source