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California Natural Resources Agency Tribal Consultation Policy

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California Natural Resources Agency Tribal Consultation Policy
California Natural Resources Agency | November 20, 2012...
Summary
California Native American Tribes and tribal communities have sovereign authority over their members and territory and a unique relationship with California's resources. All...
California Native American Tribes and tribal communities have sovereign authority over their members and territory and a unique relationship with California's resources. All California Tribes and tribal communities, whether federally recognized or not, have distinct cultural, spiritual, environmental, economic and public health interests and unique traditional cultural knowledge about California resources.

On September 19, 2011, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. issued Executive Order B-10-11, which provides, among other things, that it is the policy of the administration that every state agency and Department subject to executive control to implement effective government-to-government consultation with California Indian Tribes.

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Case Studies in Tribal Water Quality Standards Programs: The Hoopa Valley Tribe
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Case Studies in Tribal Water Quality Standards Programs: The Hoopa Valley Tribe
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | July 24, 2006...
Summary
The Hoopa Valley Tribe has lived in its valley for over 10,000 years and has always depended on the migration and spawning runs...
The Hoopa Valley Tribe has lived in its valley for over 10,000 years and has always depended on the migration and spawning runs of steelhead trout, and chinook and coho salmon in the Trinity River for a large portion of its diet. The Trinity River is also where the Hoopa hold their ceremonial Boat Dance and immerse themselves after using sweat houses built next to the river. In 2001, the Hoopa adopted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water quality standards to protect these and other uses of their waters.

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Culture Card: A Guide to Build Cultural Awareness of American Indian and Alaska Native
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Culture Card: A Guide to Build Cultural Awareness of American Indian and Alaska Native
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | April 18, 2009...
Summary
The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or...
The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or otherwise assigned to provide or coordinate services in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.

This guide is intended to serve as a general briefing to enhance cultural competence while providing services to AI/AN communities. (Cultural competence is defined as the ability to function effectively in the context of cultural differences.) A more specific orientation or training should be provided by a member of the particular AI/AN community.

Service providers should use this guide to ensure the following Five Elements of Cultural Competence* are being addressed:

1. Awareness, acceptance and valuing of cultural differences
2. Awareness of one’s own culture and values
3. Understanding the range of dynamics that result from the interaction between people of different cultures
4. Developing cultural knowledge of the particular community served or to access cultural brokers who may have that knowledge
5. Ability to adapt individual interventions, programs, and policies to fit the cultural context of the individual, family, or community

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Drowned Memories: The Submerged Places of the Winnemem Wintu

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Drowned Memories: The Submerged Places of the Winnemem Wintu
Archaeologies, Journal of the World Archaeological Congress | July 7, 2009...
Summary
This article is a brief overview of an instance where landscape inundation has disconnected culture from place. The Winnemem Wintu, a Native American...
This article is a brief overview of an instance where landscape inundation has disconnected culture from place. The Winnemem Wintu, a Native American tribe in Northern California, had most of their ancestral landscape along the McCloud River submerged by the construction of Shasta Dam just after World War II. The tribe’s remaining traditional cultural properties are under continual threat of loss and/or destruction, leaving the tribe’s ability to practice traditional ceremonies crippled by legal battles and fights against the continual assertion of United States hegemonic power over tribal cultural identity. As part of archaeological research on these submerged places, the tribe’s spiritual leader, Caleen Sisk-Franco, and Tribal Headman, Mark Franco, spoke with the author about these threats and how their culture must adapt to meet them.

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Early California Laws and Policies Relating to California Indians
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Early California Laws and Policies Relating to California Indians
California Research Bureau | September 1, 2002...
Summary
Did the State of California enact laws that prohibited California Indians from practicing their religion, speaking their languages or practicing traditional ceremonies and...
Did the State of California enact laws that prohibited California Indians from practicing their religion, speaking their languages or practicing traditional ceremonies and customs? Senator John L. Burton requested that the California Research Bureau research this question.

The initial investigation and research contained in this report led to a focus on four examples of early State of California laws and policies that significantly impacted the California Indians’ way of life:

· The 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians and related amendments;
· California militia policies and “Expeditions against the Indians” during 1851 to 1859;
· The State of California’s official response to federal treaties negotiated with California Indians during 1851 to 1852; and
· Early and current state fish protection laws that exempt California Indians from related prohibitions.

The 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians facilitated removing California Indians from their traditional lands, separating at least a generation of children and adults from their families, languages, and cultures (1850 to 1865). This California law provided for “apprenticing” or indenturing Indian children and adults to Whites, and also punished “vagrant” Indians by “hiring” them out to the highest bidder at a public auction if the Indian could not provide sufficient bond or bail.

The California Legislature created the laws that controlled California Indians’ land, lives and livelihoods, while enforcement and implementation occurred at the county and local township levels. Some examples include:

· County-level Courts of Sessions and local township Justices of the Peace determined which Indians and Indian children were “apprenticed” or indentured pursuant to the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.
· Under the same act, Justices of the Peace, mayors or recorders of incorporated towns or cities, decided the status and punishment of “vagrant” Indians.
· Under the California Constitution and state militia laws, California governors ordered local sheriffs to organize the men to conduct the “Expeditions against the Indians.”

From 1851 to 1859, the California Legislature passed twenty-seven laws that the State Comptroller relied upon in determining the total expenditures related to the Expeditions against the Indians. The total amount of claims submitted to the State of California Comptroller for these Expeditions against the Indians was $1,293,179.20.

The California Legislature was involved in influencing the U.S. Senate’s ratification process of the 18 treaties negotiated with California Indians during 1851 to 1852. These treaties were never ratified, and kept secret from 1852 until 1905. Prior to the President submitting the treaties to the Senate, the California Legislature conducted considerable debate, made reports, drafted and passed resolutions that mostly opposed ratification of
the treaties.

The California Legislature also enacted laws during the first fifteen years of statehood that accommodated Indian tribes’ traditional fishing practices. California laws exist today that continue to protect fish and exempt California Indians from related prohibitions.

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Federal Reserved Water Rights and Groundwater: Quantity, Quality, and Pore Space

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Federal Reserved Water Rights and Groundwater: Quantity, Quality, and Pore Space
Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress | February 8, 2018...
Summary
Tribal rights to groundwater have not been legally established to the same extent as rights to other natural resources (e.g., surface water, timber, minerals)....
Tribal rights to groundwater have not been legally established to the same extent as rights to other natural resources (e.g., surface water, timber, minerals). A March 2017 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the rights of a California Indian tribe (the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians) to groundwater beneath the tribe's reservation in the Coachella Valley. In November 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision; the case now proceeds to other phases that may partially shape this ruling's significance.

This is the first case in which an appellate court has held that a tribe's "reserved" rights under the Winters doctrine apply to groundwater.

Pursuant to Winters, when Congress reserves land for a reservation, it also reserves a right to water necessary to accomplish the purposes for which the reservation was created. For decades, tribal reserved rights for surface water have been established and have required settlements between the federal government (as authorized by Congress), tribes, and nonfederal users. Thus, some have raised concerns about the implications of interpreting Winters rights to include groundwater.

This Insight explores three aspects of groundwater relevant to Agua Caliente: quantity, quality, and "pore space." The legal outcome may affect how groundwater is allocated among tribal and nontribal interests and may influence groundwater allocations at other federal reservations.

The Supreme Court has not declared outright that groundwater is subject to the Winters doctrine, but declining to review the Ninth Circuit decision essentially upheld phase one of the three-phase case: a federally reserved right to the groundwater resource for the tribe. Phase two will address whether the tribe has the right to receive groundwater of a certain quality from the aquifer and whether it owns the pore space beneath tribal lands. Phase three will determine the quantity of groundwater to which the tribe is entitled, pursuant to its reserved rights. The outcome of phases two and three could have implications for expanding the scope of federal preemption of state water law. It also could affect how much groundwater is available for nontribal water agencies and water districts and those entities' ability to store water in an aquifer beneath federally reserved lands. Congress has authority over federal water law and could influence this legal framework.

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Fishes, Hydrology, and Ecology of the Klamath River Basin
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Fishes, Hydrology, and Ecology of the Klamath River Basin
National Academies Press | February 11, 2008...
Summary
The Klamath River basin in southern Oregon and northern California is the focus of a prominent conflict over competing uses for water in...
The Klamath River basin in southern Oregon and northern California is the focus of a prominent conflict over competing uses for water in the American West. Management measures for the protection of threatened and endangered fish species in the basin that have left less water available for irrigation have increased tensions among farmers and other stakeholders and brought into question the scientific justification of these measures. Two National Research Council studies evaluate a series of federal scientific assessments and recommend scientifically justified approaches to the problem.

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Guidance Document for the Sustainable Management of Groundwater Engagement with Tribal Governments June 2017 (Draft)
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Guidance Document for the Sustainable Management of Groundwater Engagement with Tribal Governments June 2017 (Draft)
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | June 1, 2017...
Summary
The objective of this guidance document is to convey information, as provided by California’s Tribal governments, by which local agencies can engage Tribal...

The objective of this guidance document is to convey information, as provided by California’s Tribal governments, by which local agencies can engage Tribal governments as part of an effort to identify interested persons, and consider the interests of beneficial users of groundwater; including those users on Tribal lands not subject to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). This guidance document can also be used to help local agencies engage with a Tribal government in the planning, financing, and management of a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), or help with the development and implementation of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) pursuant to SGMA.

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Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives
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Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | September 9, 2014...
Summary
This publication is meant to be an informational resource for tribes, agencies, and organizations across the United States with an interest in understanding...
This publication is meant to be an informational resource for tribes, agencies, and organizations across the United States with an interest in understanding Traditional Knowledges (TKs) in the context of climate change. It is meant to inspire dialogue and questions, and to foster opportunities for indigenous peoples and non-indigenous partners to braid TKs and western science in culturally-appropriate and tribally-led initiatives.

The publication establishes firmly that in all possible cases it is tribes who should ultimately decide answers to specific questions about whether English-language words such as “traditional knowledges” are the best words to use, what knowledges should count as significant to their cultures and communities, and what the terms of sharing or declining to share should be. The information presented in these Guidelines is believed to be current as of the time of production. The Guidelines are a work in progress. The workgroup anticipates revising it over time.

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Hoopa Valley Tribe Water Quality Plan

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Hoopa Valley Tribe Water Quality Plan
Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency | February 14, 2008...
Summary
The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council pursuant to Title 37 of the Hoopa Tribal Code has assigned the primary responsibility for the protection and...
The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council pursuant to Title 37 of the Hoopa Tribal Code has assigned the primary responsibility for the protection and enhancement of water quality on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation to the Riparian Review Committee (RRC). The RRC along with the Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency provides Reservation-wide coordination of the water quality control program by developing, reviewing and recommending for Tribal approval Reservation wide policies and plans for the implementation of Tribal and Federal law. This Water Quality Control Plan recognizes the unique characteristics of each watershed with regard to natural water quality, existing, potential, and historical beneficial uses, and water quality problems.

The goal of this plan is to provide a definitive program of actions designed to preserve and enhance water quality on the Reservation, and to protect the beneficial uses of water for the next 10 years to 20 years. The plan is concerned with all factors and activities that might affect water quality. However, the plan emphasizes actions to be taken by the Riparian Review Committee, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries, Forestry, Public Utility Departments, and Tribal Environmental Protection Agency, as they have responsibility for maintaining water quality on the Reservation.

The Water Quality Control Plan (WQCP) is comprehensive in scope. The WQCP describes the Hoopa Valley Reservation waters, the quality and quantity issues, and the existing, potential and historical beneficial uses of the Reservation’s waters. The plan also prescribes criteria for the protection of the Reservation waters and includes plans and policies that describe the basis for the management of water quality and protection of human health. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has recognized authority for setting water quality standards for its Reservation waters, including both the Trinity and Klamath Rivers (U.S. EPA, 2002). Included in the plan are specific criteria that apply to the Lower Klamath River on the Hoopa Valley Reservation (Figure 1.1).

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