WhereIsGov-GovResponsibilityInCalifornia?

[Brenda Brandon <bbrandon@ross1.cc.haskell.edu>]

There are two responsibilities that government agencies have to Tribes when it comes to environmental decisions; government to government relations and community involvement.  

When Tribes or Villages are not located on "reservations" government to government relations are often overlooked.  This was certainly the case with the CALFED Bay-Delta Program Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, June 2000.  

CALFED Bay-Delta is the largest NEPA and/or water project ever to be undertaken in the history of man.  CALFED is a cooperative interagency effort of 18 State and Federal Agencies to address a complexity of issues related to water shortage, water quality, water transfer, and ecosystem restoration.  Its implementation will involve the transport of water through thousands of miles of levees and canals from Northern California, near Redding, through the San Joaquin Valley, into San Francisco Bay, (thus, the project is coined San Francisco Bay Restoration), on into Los Angeles and finally into San Diego.  There was no inclusion of President Clinton's Executive Order 12898 in the massive, technical document of over 4,000 pages.  As a matter of fact, the word 'Tribe' is not even mentioned in the CALFED document, though the inherent water rights of an estimated 52 California Tribes will be effected.    

Furthermore, there were no public meetings held for Tribal community members during the development and comment phases of developing CALFED Bay-Delta Program.  Certain meetings were held for Tribal Environmental Professionals during EPA Regional Tribal Operation Committee meetings.  However, when elders or non-technical people asked questions they were put off by the CALFED representatives.  Always, the water rights issues were evaded and put on the back burner. 

Native American Tribes across the Nation are watching and waiting to see if California and the Federal Agencies will uphold the regulations and treat the California Tribes as Sovereign Nations. Today there is promise that one Tribal representative from one California Tribe will be included on a Water Committee, which hardly seems fair to the other impacted Tribes.  Still there have been no provisions provided for Tribal community involvment in the NEPA process.  Tribal Community members in Northern California have affectionately named this project, "The Last Goldrush."  They feel that their rights have been robbed.  
For All My Relations,

Brenda Brandon 
Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center
Haskell Indian Nations University