Native Leaders Meet With Congressional Committee to Request Co-Management of Federal Lands
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which is currently co-managed with the Navajo tribe. Image: pabrady63 on Adobe Stock.
On Tuesday, March 8, 2022 the US House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources held a, what many are calling historic, hearing with native leaders entitled “Examining the History of Federal Lands and the Development of Tribal Co-Management.” Witness testimonies making a case for the importance and efficacy of indigenous land stewardship were given by native leaders such as National Park Service director Chuck Sams III, Chairman of the Southern Ute Tribal Council Melvin Baker, and Aja DeCoteau, Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
You can watch the hearing in its entirety here.
Why does this hearing matter? Indigenous people have been living on what are now U.S. public lands (the ones you probably like to run and bike on) for hundreds of years. These tribes hold extensive knowledge and capability of stewarding their land and live within cultures that value doing so.
This point is amplified in DeCoteau’s testimony at the hearing: “We have a deep and reverent cultural connection to our homelands and traditions. The knowledge of sustainable and appropriate management and care for these lands has been passed down from parents to children since time immemorial. The fact we are still here today is testament to the value of generations of observations, adaptations, and traditional knowledge of tamanwit, our concept of the natural law that governs the balance of life on earth.”
If you are for protecting the environment, supporting indigenous people in their efforts to steward their ancestral land is one of the best ways to do so.
