Wednesday, September 13, 2006
A Different Way
I was reading this morning about a settlement between the State of Washington and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for the willfull destruction by Washington Department of Transportation of an ancient Elwha village and burial ground near Port Angeles, the largest pre-contact archeological site yet unearthed in Washington state. We've visited the Elwha Reservation and river in the past, on our way to camping on other S'klallam and Coast Salish tribal territories that surround the Olympic National Park, and--like the inhabitants of the Olympic Peninsula themselves--looked forward to the return of the Tyee salmon as the Elwha dams are removed in the near future.
All this got me thinking about how land and other natural resources are managed or mismanaged in our country, as well as the ongoing dispute over accountability between federal agencies responsible for conservation and energy royalties on Indian trust lands, and how long this fraudulent promise and charade has gone on.
My conclusion is that the only way to restore both the land and the indigenous/settler relationships that make up our United States is for the respective federal bureaucracies to devolve their powers and budgets related to federal lands to the first nations through some mechanism designed to maintain services through the transition. Perhaps in negotiation with the National Congress of American Indians.
Whatever form the discussion takes both formally and informally, I honestly believe it is time to move beyond the system of co-management and the process of informed consent to one of acknowledging that the federal bureaucracies that have defaulted on their trust responsibilities for two centuries now, are no longer deserving of our trust or monies. They have had their turn; it's now time to try a different way.
If not out of moral conscience or sense of honor, then for sake of sustainable development and environmental sanity.
All this got me thinking about how land and other natural resources are managed or mismanaged in our country, as well as the ongoing dispute over accountability between federal agencies responsible for conservation and energy royalties on Indian trust lands, and how long this fraudulent promise and charade has gone on.
My conclusion is that the only way to restore both the land and the indigenous/settler relationships that make up our United States is for the respective federal bureaucracies to devolve their powers and budgets related to federal lands to the first nations through some mechanism designed to maintain services through the transition. Perhaps in negotiation with the National Congress of American Indians.
Whatever form the discussion takes both formally and informally, I honestly believe it is time to move beyond the system of co-management and the process of informed consent to one of acknowledging that the federal bureaucracies that have defaulted on their trust responsibilities for two centuries now, are no longer deserving of our trust or monies. They have had their turn; it's now time to try a different way.
If not out of moral conscience or sense of honor, then for sake of sustainable development and environmental sanity.
