NATIVE NATION BUILDING TV: Segment 8

Intergovernmental and Intertribal Relations focuses on Native nations' efforts to enhance their relationships with other governments as a way to advance their nation-building objectives. It details how some Native nations are forging mutually beneficial intergovernmental agreements, and chronicles the many advantages to forging similar intertribal arrangements.

NATIVE NATIONS INITIATIVES FEATURED

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC)

Salmon play an integral role in the culture and lives of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest. In the past, the tribes along the Columbia River responsibly and effectively managed the river's ecosystem, ensuring that its salmon population would prosper.

Many factors—including the inability of tribes to exert exclusive jurisdiction over the river, the development of U.S. and Canadian ocean fisheries, hydroelectric development, a steep rise in the number of fish caught, tributary habitat destruction, poor water quality and low water flows—have since led to an alarming decline in the salmon population of the Columbia River.

(photo) An Umatilla fisheries employee shows a live salmon to visitors at the Three Mile Fish Facility. (Courtesy: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation)

With neither the state nor the federal government willing or able to effectively address any of these problems, the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes joined forces in 1977 to form the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC). Its goal: to reclaim their authority in fisheries management of the Columbia River and to re-establish a healthy salmon population.

Providing a wide range of functions including fisheries management and enforcement, policy development, advocacy, litigation support, habitat restoration, and fundraising, CRITFC is leading the effort to restore the salmon for the benefit of its member tribes as well as all of the people living in the Pacific Northwest. CRITFC provides a great example of how tribes, sharing cultural interests, can form inter-tribal alliances to effectively address their critical concerns and strategic priorities.

Links
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
Article: "Tribes May Expand Wild Salmon Market Along the Columbia River"
Article: "Report Finds Farm Raised Salmon High in Toxins"
Award: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

National Conference of State Legislatures

The National Conference of State Legislatures is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories by providing research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on fundamental state issues.

As tribal governments continue to exercise their powers of self-government within their communities, there is an increasing need for interaction between state and tribal governments. Since states and tribes have an array of common interests, NCSL tracks a variety of policy issues affecting state-tribal relations, including economic development, environmental protection, human services, taxation, jurisdiction and law enforcement, and trust land issues.

(photo) Tribal participants, Tribal-State Relations Project, National Conference of State Legislatures (Courtesy: National Conference of State Legislatures)

In addition, the NCSL State-Tribal Relations Project, a partnership with the National Congress of American Indians, provides services to legislators, tribal leaders and staff working to improve state policies affecting American Indian families and communities. The project focuses on state policy, tracking legislation, providing research and policy analysis, and technical assistance and consultation.

Links
National Conference of State Legislatures

URL links verified July 19, 2006