Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2016

AUTHORS: Heather K Stricker*, Forest County Potawatomi Community

ABSTRACT: Federal agencies have a constitutionally-mandated obligation to Native American tribes for collaboration and consultation, however oftentimes this obligation falls short of meaningful action. In terms of natural resources, tribes may face a series of obstacles in efforts to reclaim sovereignty over trust resources, yet despite this, have been effectively building the capacity to address off-reservation management issues. Tribes are contributing vast amounts of knowledge, resources, and data to the conservation and management of resources, particularly threatened and endangered species. A large proportion of threatened and endangered species recovery falls on the burden of tribes, particularly because, as Professor Mary C. Wood writes, “The tribal harvest right is nearly meaningless within a context of modern species imperilment.” This talk will address not only legally-mandated (treaty) obligations that Federal agencies have to tribes, but also the mutually-beneficial imperative for all agencies, including both state and federal agencies, to partner with tribes on species recovery.