The third engagement session with Tribal and Native Hawaiian Community leaders was held today by the White House Council on Native American Affairs (WHCNAA). The discussion today was centred on Tribal Homelands initiatives such as co-stewardship, safeguarding holy sites and treaty rights, and improving the land into trust procedure.
The Biden-Harris administration has supported tribal tribes and their lands ever since it took office. The “Tribal Homelands Initiative,” a cooperative initiative to enhance federal stewardship of public lands, streams, and wildlife, was established last year by a joint Secretarial Order from the Interior and Agriculture Departments.
In November, Secretary Haaland unveiled a brand-new interagency strategy to promote interdepartmental coordination, collaboration, and action in order to better safeguard and increase access to Indigenous sacred sites. The federal government has committed to improving interagency coordination and collaboration to defend treaty rights and fully carry out the obligations of the federal government under treaties, according to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that President Biden recently released.
Today’s debate was led by Secretary Haaland, who co-chairs the WHCNAA with Ambassador Susan Rice, the White House Domestic Policy Advisor. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President, Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Chavez Rodriguez, EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, and other senior Administration officials joined today as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s all-government strategy to strengthen nation-to-nation relations.
The discussion today also covered the implementation of the Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge Memorandum, the specific effects of climate change on Indigenous communities, and the launch of the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s new Indigenous Knowledge website.