Today I shadowed Paige, a staff Archaeologist, and sat in on a Tribal Consultation meeting discussing the leasing of land that has site of importance to Native Americans for the purposes of oil and gas development. Before even getting out of the car, Paige told me pretty bluntly that I needed to follow a certain set of procedures so that I, a white person, didn't offend any of the. I shouldn't shake hands to hard or look anyone directly in the eye. Basically, I needed to play the role of the doe-eyed, passive female in order to be accepted. Apparently I did pretty well, because I was invited to sit in on the caucus which not many white people are allowed to do.
One recurring theme that kept coming up through out the meeting (which was hectic, tense, and disjointed anyway) was that the lands in question were taken from the Native Americans to begin with. I appreciate that indigenous American peoples have faced undeserved and unacceptable oppression, but there was a sense of continued anger in the meeting that, to me, seemed to put the Tribes in their own way and proved that while these issues are still very present for Tribal people and not relegated to some distant bygone era. There also lacked a sense of collaboration toward a mutual goal that stalled any attempts at answering all of the questions that were flying about. I don't contend that Native American have a right to be upset, all oppressed people do, but being angry in and of itself is not constructive in these types of situations and here, proved to prevent meaningful dialogue.
There was also a large gap in education that required a lot of back tracking and explanations of dense topics that just seemed to eat time. Paige later explained to me that only on of the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers is actually qualified to hold his position under the Secretary of the Interior's standards and that's why there is so much confusion. Personally, if I was going to a meeting where the fate of my sacred sites was going to be discussed and potentially decided, I would want to know what laws and processes were going to be triggered and what ones I could use to prevent adverse effects. That just wasn't the case here and I think that more education (workshops, publications, etc...) needs to be provided so that meetings like these can be more effective and more efficient. But the lowly white-girl intern must remain mute.
It was a valuable discussion to be a part of and something I would definitely not be exposed to on the East Coast. Day 2 and I've already learned a lot :)
One recurring theme that kept coming up through out the meeting (which was hectic, tense, and disjointed anyway) was that the lands in question were taken from the Native Americans to begin with. I appreciate that indigenous American peoples have faced undeserved and unacceptable oppression, but there was a sense of continued anger in the meeting that, to me, seemed to put the Tribes in their own way and proved that while these issues are still very present for Tribal people and not relegated to some distant bygone era. There also lacked a sense of collaboration toward a mutual goal that stalled any attempts at answering all of the questions that were flying about. I don't contend that Native American have a right to be upset, all oppressed people do, but being angry in and of itself is not constructive in these types of situations and here, proved to prevent meaningful dialogue.
There was also a large gap in education that required a lot of back tracking and explanations of dense topics that just seemed to eat time. Paige later explained to me that only on of the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers is actually qualified to hold his position under the Secretary of the Interior's standards and that's why there is so much confusion. Personally, if I was going to a meeting where the fate of my sacred sites was going to be discussed and potentially decided, I would want to know what laws and processes were going to be triggered and what ones I could use to prevent adverse effects. That just wasn't the case here and I think that more education (workshops, publications, etc...) needs to be provided so that meetings like these can be more effective and more efficient. But the lowly white-girl intern must remain mute.
It was a valuable discussion to be a part of and something I would definitely not be exposed to on the East Coast. Day 2 and I've already learned a lot :)
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