Tribal Relations
The Eastern Region Tribal Relations Program provides advice, counsel, and training services to the Forest Service workforce to promote a culture of understanding that results in proactive, effective, and meaningful dialogue with Indian Tribes. The program’s goal is to ensure trust responsibilities are recognized and fulfilled and that decisions respond to the current and future needs of Indian Tribes and tribal members.
Our efforts are focused on 89 federally-recognized Tribes that have rights and interests in the management of Forest Service lands and programs within the 20 states of the Eastern Region. This includes 20 “removed” Tribes located outside of the region, primarily in Kansas and Oklahoma, whose homelands are here in the Eastern Region. The Eastern Region also maintains active relationships with numerous inter-tribal organizations, tribal colleges and universities, American Indian professional associations, and Indian urban centers.
The protection of treaty rights and the preservation of appropriate opportunities to exercise those rights on national forests within the Eastern Region are significant aspects of the Region’s Tribal Relations Program. Twelve forests within the Eastern Region are components of lands ceded by Tribes through treaties with the United States. Indian Tribes have asserted reserved treaty rights on more than 7.5 million acres (64%) of Forest Service land within the Eastern Region.
The Eastern Region demonstrates the highest standards for support of tribal sovereignty; recognition of indigenous values as shared values; protection of reserved rights and cultural properties; and consultation, collaboration, and partnership in landscape scale conservation. Our mission is to:
- Recognize and respect tribal sovereignty.
- Understand and fulfill our trust responsibilities and treaty obligations.
- Respect traditional knowledge and tribal connection to the land.
- Maintain a government-to-government relationship with federally recognized Tribes.
- Facilitate effective collaboration and consultation between Tribes and agency decision-makers.
Connect with an Eastern Region Tribal Relations Specialist at sm.fs.r9_tribal@usda.gov.
National Consultation Schedule
The Forest Service Office of Tribal Relations invites Tribal Nations and Alaska Native Corporations to consult directly with the Washington Office on national-level policies.
Authorities and Funding
The Eastern Region Tribal Relations Program provides advice, counsel, and training services to the Forest Service workforce to promote a culture of understanding that results in proactive, effective, and meaningful dialogue with Indian tribes.
Sub-Regions
Although each tribe must be treated individually with unique cultures, histories, socioeconomic realities, and political identities; the Eastern Region can be viewed as having three distinct subregions for tribal engagement: Northeast, Lake States, and Southern Tier.
MOUs with Tribes
The Eastern Region works within the framework of several Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements with Tribes and Tribal Organizations.