Tag: Kathryn Lynn

An Assessment of Government-to-Government Relationships Among Federal Agencies and Federally Recognized Tribes

Presenter: Souvanny Miller

Mentor: Kathy Lynn

Oral Presentation

Major: Environmental Studies

The United States federal government has historically failed to meet many of its trust responsibilities to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes—often violating treaty-reserved rights or failing to consult on issues pertaining to Indian rights. In order to meet these trust responsibilities, effective government-to-government relationships must be established among Tribes and federal agencies. Pursuant to Executive Order 13175—entitled “Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments”—each federal agency is required to adopt their own consultation policies and set of strategies for facilitating effective government-to-government relationships. My research will assess the ways in which various federal agencies attempted to facilitate effective government-to-government relations with federally recognized tribes and how these relations could be improved. I will focus specifically on consultation policies, memoranda of understanding, communications and bodies such as advisory councils created to facilitate cooperative management of resources. I will use three case studies to evaluate the effectiveness of three federal agencies’ methods for maintaining government-to-government relationships: Willamette National Forest in the National Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture; Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Department of Commerce; and Olympic National Park within the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. This project has the potential to aid agencies as they work toward more effective government-to-government relationships with federally recognized tribes. It will illustrate what is most important for agencies: consulting early and often while developing and maintaining site- specific programs, institutions and relationships that are mutually beneficial.

Dam Construction and Its Effects on the Traditional Foods and Cultural Practices of the Klamath Tribes

Presenter: Anthony Kollmorgan

Mentor: Kathy Lynn, Environmental Studies

Oral Presentation

Major: Sociology 

According to the Klamath EIS/EIR the Klamath people have been without salmon for over 95 years as of 2010. Historically, the Klamath tribes had depended on the salmon in the Klamath River for subsistence and for cultural practices linked to their ancestral fishing sites. As a result of the installation of dams on the Klamath River, water quality was drastically altered resulting in the loss of salmon in the rivers and the loss of ceremonial practices for
the Klamath people. In this paper I examine the ecological effects that dam installations have had on the waterways in and surrounding the Klamath Basin and how this has impacted salmon and other native fish species. In doing so, I also analyze the impacts that dams have had on Klamath peoples’ traditional practices and how the absence of salmon in the Klamath River severely threatens the cultural survival and continuance of the Klamath tribes. This paper also provides a brief description of the way in which the Dawes allotment act of 1887 and termination in 1954 impacted the tribes in order to contextualize their current struggle for cultural survival and the right to subsist off their land.