RE: Tribal Limitations

[Jeff Tomhave <jtomhave@taswer.org>]

	Mr. O'Hara's comment highlights the fundamental misunderstanding from which many people suffer, they are not familiar with federal Indian law, yet make public pronouncements about Indian policy. They are uninformed and their comments reflect such. 
	
	Under federal law, Indian Tribes are not now, nor have they ever been, classified as racial groups. Indian Tribes have always been seen by the federal government as separate political sovereign governments. Indian Tribes predate the Constitution and the United States. Federal Indian law recognizes and reflects this fact. That is why federal agency policy deals with Indian Tribes on a government-to-government basis.   

	Just last week, EPA Administrator Whitman reaffirmed the Agency's long standing Indian Policy. EPA was the first federal agency to generate an Indian Policy which recognizes that the agency must deal with each individual Indian Tribe on a government-to-government basis.

	Beyond their individual Indian policy's each federal agency also must consider the federal government's trust obligation in relation to Indian Tribes. 

	The trust obligation is one of the primary cornerstones of federal Indian law. It recognizes a federal duty to protect Tribal lands, resources, and ways of living. This obligation arose from the transfer of Indian land to the federal government by conquest, treaty, executive order, or congressional legislation. The obligation remains independent of treaties and it inures to the benefit of all Tribes, treaty and non treaty alike. Federal agencies cannot abrogate or extinguish the trust obligation and federal agencies must implement its programs in manners that protect Tribal lands and resources.

	It is time to move beyond the State version Tribe mentality. The federal government deals with both States and Tribes as sovereign governments. States and Tribes both share the objective of protecting the health of their people and the protection of their environment. 	

	If local control is what Mr. O'Hara ultimately demands, then he should applaud the local control that Tribal governments exercise in the protection of their local environment - just as he would applaud the local control that the states exercise in theirs. Indeed, Mr. O'Hara should applaud when States and Tribes work together for environmental protection because we all know that pollution knows no borders. 

	In fact, I invite anyone interested in learning how States and Tribes have worked together for environmental protection to attend the 3rd Annual Tribal Association on Solid Waste and Emergency Response Conference this October ( http://www.taswer.org ) where we will have presentations on just such topics.