NOAA Tribal Partnerships

While NOAA works with many partners, from local and state level governments to international entities outside the borders and federal waters of the United States, NOAA’s partnerships with Native American and Alaska Native tribes and villages are unique. The government-to-government relationship between NOAA and native tribes and villages embodies the U.S. government’s obligation to consider the rights and interests of Native American and Alaska Native tribes and villages when carrying out the mandates of federal law.

This relationship is a benefit to both. While NOAA brings scientific knowledge and U.S. government support to the table, tribes are sovereign nations and have been stewards of the Earth. They represent a wide, deep pool of ecological knowledge about species, their habitats, behaviors, needs, and threats, gained by a close and interdependent relationship embraced and passed down over the course of centuries. Acknowledging the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a recent document produced by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and National Ocean Service – “NOAA Fisheries and National Ocean Service Guidance and Best Practices for Engaging and Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Decision-Making” – which encourages, “as appropriate and to the extent practicable and permitted by law, the inclusion of TEK in the line offices’ environmental science, policy and decision making process…”

“I grew up at Taos Pueblo and we’re good stewards of the environment, and all of our ceremonies, everything that we do, is tied to the land,” said Georgia Madrid, a NOAA equal employment opportunity specialist in Boulder, Colorado and a Native American. “We are all connected, we are all relatives, and we don’t see the land as a resource, but rather we are to be good stewards.”

NOAA’s tribal partnerships with the 574 federally recognized tribes across the country help to conserve habitat on tribal lands, with NOAA providing technical assistance and additional funding on projects while respecting tribal history and culture.

In Alaska, NOAA works with native organizations, conserving populations of marine mammals while managing subsistence hunting, and working on issues such as salmon bycatch, harvesting halibut, commercial trawling off western Alaska, and Arctic fisheries management. As the Arctic warms, this partnership is by necessity growing stronger.

“NOAA has an Arctic steering committee led by Adm. Gallaudet [Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, the assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator],” said Meredith Cameron, the headquarters liaison for NOAA’s Regional Collaboration Network. “That committee is currently

reworking its priorities, with a renewed interest in the Arctic. They’ve also had a renewed interest in tribal engagement because there are so many tribes here in Alaska and so many issues, especially around fisheries and marine mammals. The team is trying to find ways they can better interact with tribes across the gamut of NOAA missions.”

In the Greater Atlantic Region, NOAA works with tribes to protect marine mammals, sea turtles, and species such as Atlantic salmon, as well as on ecosystem restoration, aquaculture, and mitigating ocean acidification. NOAA species recovery grants to the region’s tribes support management, outreach, research, and monitoring projects for endangered and threatened species as well as de-listed species.

In the West Coast region, tribes have strong ties to marine and aquatic resources that are valued not only for subsistence and commerce, but for religious and ceremonial reasons. Many Pacific Northwest tribes manage fishery resources in partnership with states and the federal government, and play a large part in managing fisheries while preserving their rights to fish under treaties. NOAA partners with tribes on the formation of salmon recovery teams, supporting efforts with grants such as the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund as well as task forces like the Columbia Basin Partnership.

In the Pacific Islands, while there are no federally recognized tribes, NOAA still consults with native Hawaiian organizations and others on resource management issues, and partners with many Pacific Islander groups to ensure cultural responsibility wile carrying out the organization's mission.

While working with tribal partners is vital to NOAA's missions, it is also working to bring Native Americans in NOAA, so that the organization can benefit from their unique experience and sensibilities.

"How do we get more Alaska Native students interested in careers NOAA? They've been exploring ways to address that. Some of that is promoting what NOAA does, finding opportunities to get interns and build our educational programs to be more inclusive. Collaboration produces ideas," Cameron said.

"... I have worked throughout my NOAA career to increase awareness as well as initiate programs where we can reach out to Native Americans, like the Tribal College and Science Day, [and] Tribal Relations Seminar, creating programs with prminent Native Americans who can come and speak at NOAA," said Madrid.

"Just recenlty in Boulder, we had the American Indian Upward Bound students from six different tribal reservations, and one of the students happened to be Jemez Pueblo, and afterwards she came up to me and said 'Wow, George, I'm so proud to know that you're from Taos Pueblo and that someday maybe I'll get to work for NOAA,' and the made me feel really good."