W.vini simun(;s, om:(;o.N 97761
SPILYAY TYMOO
Letter to Swimmer details concerns, objections
March 13, 1987
Introduction
This memorandum is submitted
as a result of the serious concerns
of tribes arising as a result of the
visit on Feburary 12, 1987. to the
Tort In nd Area Office of the Assista nt
Secretary to explain to tribes his
forestry initiatives and the request
by the Assistant Secretary and Area
Director for further information.
It should be clearly understood
that this memorandum was written
at a meeting in the Portland Area
Office on February 19 and 20.
1987, by various tribal representa
tives called together by the Area
Director with the assistance of the
Intertribal Timber Council. The
individuals present were representing
Iribos who arc members of the
Intertribal l imber Council, an orga
nization composed of many timber
producing tribes.
During your testimony before
the Senate Select Committee on
Indian Affairs on February 20,
1987, you referred to the formation
of a "task force" to advise you on
these matters. We are not such a
task force and do not desire to
participate in such a task force.
You may use these materials if you
choose in conjunction with your
task force.
This memorandum is not an
official position or statement of the
Intertribal Timber Council or indi
vidual Indian Tribes. Nor should
this communication in any way be
construed as Interior's consultation
with Indian tribes. Tribal representa
tives at the February 12 meeting
were seriously concerned that their
opinions regarding the forestry initia
tives fell on deaf ears. This memoran
dum is intended to give the Assistant
Secretary a more detailed position
with regard to tribal objections to
his proposals.
Because of the upcoming appro
priation hearings, there has simply
not been enough time allocated for
effective consultation with affected
tribes and it was not possible to
form a group that was able to take
an official position for an Indian
tribe or the Intertribal Timber
Council as the Assistant Secretary
has requested on February 12, 1987.
This memorandum is merely infor
mation submitted by a group of
interested persons to make clear
the opposition to his proposals.
This group will forward this infor
mation to affected Indian tribes
and the governing body of ITC so
that they may develop their indi-
viauai positions.
The Indian Forest Resource
Indian forests are important to
many Indian tribes and the com
munities surrounding their reser
vations far beyond a mere descrip
tion of the number of acres involved
and the annual allowable cut. For
many reservations (approximately
25) timber is the primary natural
resource and source of income.
The tribe's economy, system of
government, and continued exist
ence absolutely depends upon proper
management of the forest. For many
other reservations (approximately
90) the forest resource is not the
primary natural resource on the
reservation but is very significant
and any major changes in the BI A
forestry programs would still have
a devastating impact on the reser
vation and the tribe. Apart from
purely monetary considerations, the
history, the culture, and the roots
of the Indian people are tied to
these forests. Many tribes have lost
their arable lands through the allot
ment process and through opening
reservations to homesteading. This
loss of millions of acres of Indian
lands from the 1890s through the
1920s is viewed by both Indians
and non-Indians as a national trage
dy. Current BIA initiatives may
well have the same impact when it
comes to Indian forest lands.
These Bureau forestry initiatives
also strike at the heart of the trust
SpSfl jay
$pilynav Tymoo .Staff
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FOUNDED IN MARCH OF 1976
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responsibility of the United States
. Government, l egal title to these
approximately 14.000,000 acres of
forest and wood lands is held by
the United States in trust for Indian
tribes and individual Indians. This
administration appears to be mak
ing a concerted attempt through
the budgeting procedure, and the
contracting process, to alter the
nature of the trust responsibility as
it has developed over the past two
centuries.
The relationship of the tribes
and the federal government will
continue to evolve as it has since
Chief Justice Marshall speaking
for the U.S. Supreme Court first
described it in 1832. Tribes are
committed to seeing that the direc
tion and evolution of the trust
responsibility will benefit both the
tribes and the federal government.
The drastic turn in this evolution
evidenced by the Forestry initiative
proposals benefits neither the tribes
nor the Federal Government. These
proposals will devastate tribal and
local economics, alter the basic
Federaltribal trust relationship,'?
impair the ability of manytribesto j
prosper and become self-sufficient,
and in the long run increase the
cost to the Federal Government. It I
should be remembered that most j
of the income derived by tribes
from their forests is used by tribes 10
to fund essential tribal governmen
tal functions and services, includ
ing protection of treaty rights, police
protection, tribal courts, housing,
health services, education, and gene
ral tribal welfare.
The following sets forth this
group's analysis of each of the pro
posed Forestry initiatives:
$7.5 million decrease in timber
sales administration funds
First, it is important to realize
that current levels of Bureau fund
ing of timber sales administration
are inadequate to properly manage
timber sales. For example, Bureau
inability to fund environmental
assessments and archaeological stu
dies have seriously delayed timber
sales. A prudent trustee should not
be requesting cuts in this area, but
rather should be seeking increases.
The budget reduction will have
two primary effects. First, less timber
will be cut each yeai. Personnel
will simply not be available to pre
pare sales for contracting.
Second, the decrease in funding
will mean that the timber sales that
are completed will not be adminis
tered as well and will result in
irreparable damage to the forests.
Even now the lack of personnel has
resulted in an insufficient monitor
ing of timber sales.
Budget cuts in forestry will result
in multiplied adverse economic im
pacts for the reservation and sur
rounding communities. Many com
munities in and surrounding Indian
reservations are highly dependent
upon the harvest of the full allowa
ble cut on the reservation.
Finally, it is important to remem
ber that Indian forests like national
forests have many important non
cash flow returns. These non-cash
flow returns may be severely
impacted by the cut in timber sales
administration funds. Forests are
important to Indian people for a
host of non-commercial reasons
including religious use, hunting,
fishing, root digging, berry-picking,
recreational, and spiritual use. Each
of the these uses is dependent on
the proper management of the forests
for their continued use. For many
reservations the forest is the main
source of Indian employment. Non
profit motives provide important
direction for the management and
development of Indian forests.
Administrative Fees
The Bureau proposes to use admi
nistrative fees to offset a portion of
the reduction in timber sales admini-
Tymm
ext. 274, 285
1161, ext. 286
or
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Funding for forestry training programs could be cut or eliminated should
S wimmer's proposals receive approval.
stration funds. This proposal fails
to recognie the carefully developed
practice that currently exists with
regard to these fees. This move
invites litigation. The current prac
tices have their roots in the early
1970s when the issue of Bureau's
mismanagement of Indian forests
loomed on the horion. Litigation
was both filed and threatened. To
head off litigation and to remedy
some of the mismanagement prac
tices the Bureau agreed to apply
the administrative fees that it had
been collecting to activities intended
to improve the management of
Indian forests. Tribes were a part
of this cooperative effort through
their matching contributions to
Indian forest management.
The current Bureau initiative seeks
to dissolve the cooperative rela
tionship that has developed over
the past 15 years. In doing so the
Bureau should realize that they are
inviting the litigation that the pol
icy was included to avert.
Tribes seek cooperation, not con
frontation. Congress, through the
enactment of the Indian Self-Deter-mination
Act, and in its appropria
tions over the past 15 years have
certainly fostered this cooperative
relationship and it has resulted in
marked improvement in Indian forest
management. These proposals mark
an about face in that effort.
$3.15 million reduction in special
forest development program
The proposed budget reduction
of $3. 1 5 million out of the special
Forest Development program is a
classic example of being "penny
wise and dollar foolish." The
Bureau's own analysis shows that
this "savings" will have the follow
ing effects:
1) The time to complete the
forest development backlog will be
extended by an additional 4.9 years
from the current projected date of
1995 to a new projected date of the
year 2000. (It should be noted that
the Bureau has yet to meet its pro
jection dates.)
2) A schedule of treatment at the
reduced funding level indicates a
loss of 2.4 years of growth that will
never be recovered.
3) Conservative stumpage value
loss ranges, not even taking into
account the effect of inflation, indi
cate a loss of between $8.1 million
and $13 million.
4) There will be a loss of between
1,207 and 1,931 man-years of employ
ment and an estimated personal
income loss ranging from $25.1
million and $40.2 million based
upon standard Forest Service cal
culations for economic impact.
5) There will be an undetermined
loss due to attack from insect and
disease in overstocked stands.
6) There will be an undetermined
loss in forage production.
The losses become even more
staggering when viewing the impact
on the individual reservations. For
example, on the Warm Springs
Indian Reservation where funding
levels for this program have ranged
from an inadequate level of $300,000
to $600,000 per year, the projected
cut will result in an annual decrease
of revenues to the Tribes of approxi
mately $5,000,000. The situation is
similar at the Colville Reservation
w hich now has a backlog of 80,000
acres. Implementation of this initi
ative will decrease income on the
Colville Reservation by approxi
mately $5,000,000 per year.
$700,000 reduction in area office
forestry funding
Area Office forestry operations
are critical to Bureau Tribal timber
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management programs. They pro
vide close-by technical services for
day-to-day management activities
for tribes. They are particularly
important for those tribes with
smaller timber resources that can
not justify large on-site staffs. This
reduction is particularly insuppor
table in light of the proposal to
increase Central Office funding.
Forestry Privatization Initiative
The Assistant Secretary's fore
stry privatization initiative and the
means by which the Assistant Secre
tary seeks to develop and imple
ment it can only be discharged as
outrageous. It is an apparent attempt
to begin dismantling the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and changing the
basic relationship between the fed
eral government and Indian tribes.
This proposal, on its face, is objec
tionable for a variety of reasons.
First, the Bureau is in essence attemp
ting to contract out. unilaterally,
one of its trust responsibilities.
There are serious legal questions
about whether or not this can be
done. Despite requests by tribes for
legal opinions from the Solicitor
on this subject, no such opinions
have been provided. While privati
zation of government functions is
taking place in other areas, the
situation is very different with many
Bureau functions because they are
required by the trust respon
sibility of the United States. These
functions cannot just be handed off
to private concerns.
Second, the whole privatization
concept flies in the face of self
determination. Under the the Indian
Self-Determination Act the tribes
and the federal government jointly
decide which function it is approp
riate for tribes to take over. Under
lying this process is the concept of
government-to-government relation
ships in which responsible political
entities deliberate regarding the wel
fare of their people.
To the extent that the trust rela
tionship has been modified and is
evolving, it has clearly been the
policy established by Congress that
the changes will be the result of
consensual agreements between the
tribal governments and the federal
government. This is a lengthy pro
cess for each tribe that must be
carefully developed depending upon
special situation on each reserva
tion. The Bureau, in developing and
monitoring these consensual arrange
ments, provides an important sta
bilizing factor that simply could
not be provided by private indus
try. The privatization policy is a
unilateral attempt by the Assistant
Secretary to change the relation
ship over the objection of Indian
tribes. Congress, not the Executive
Branch, defines the trust relationship.
Third, the concept of private
management of Indian forests is at
odds with the basic nature of Indian
forests. The goals of Indian tribes
in managing their forests are quite
different from those of Boise Cas
cade or Weyerhauser. Indian forests
are managed on a multiple-use
concept similar to that used by the
U.S. Forest Service. The motive of
private management is profits.
Indian forests have far greater
importance to the tribes than just
profit. They must be managed on a
sustained yield basis to provide for
long range planning and a stable
source of revenues to fund tribal
governmental operations. The oppor
tunity for the development of con
flicts of interests between private
forest managers and Indian tribes
are obvious. Indian tribes now com
pete directly in many cases with
those private managers. The con
cept of fiduciary duty does not
allow for these conflicts.
Impacts of proposed forestry Initi
atives on individual reservations
These forestry initiatives will tran
slate into specific severe impacts on
many Indian reservations. Ihefol-
lopment. Tribal timber sales generate
95 percent of the Colville Tribal
income and when combined with
State and Federal contracts and
grants, this income represents 45
percent of the total tribal budget.
More than 800 reservation jobs are
directly derived from their forest
resource. Under the current budget,
ten percent administrative fee is
directed back into the Colville forest
and accounts for 33 percent of their
total program budget. In addition
to Bureau funds, the Colville Tribes
spends $1,200,000 each year for
slash treatment, site preparation,
and road construction. Addition
ally, the Tribes fund efforts to meet
environmental constraints and nu
merous other factors related to the
management of the forest. The
proposed forestry initiative will have
'the following estimated effects on
the Colville Reservation.
1. 360 primary jobs and 600
secondary jobs would be lost.
2. The unemployment rate for
the tribes will rise from the present
46 percent to a disasterous 66 percent.
3. The total payroll loss to the
Tribes will be $14.5 million per
year.
4. Perhaps most seriously, will
be the impact on the overall func
tioning of the Colville Tribal govern
ment. These proposals will have
the effect of reducing the total
budget from 40 to 60 percent. The
primary effect of this reduction will
be the devastation of the Tribe's
core management system, includ
ing funding for the following:
Executive Director, accounting, per
sonnel, enrollment, housing, aud
its, insurance, solid waste, donated
foods, senior wood supply, and
burial and fire grants. The reduc
tion in these core management sys
tems would necessarily cause the
Tribe to be out of compliance for
our federal and state grants and
contracts.
The dismantling of the Colville's
core management system and budget
reductions would then either cause
the elimination or curtailment of
the following essential governmen
tal services provided by the Tribes:
tribal court, tribal prosecutor, parole
and probation, reservation attor
ney, legal aids, Colville Tribal Enter
prise Corporation, law and order
program, fish and game program,
planning department, education de
partment, Headstart program, tri
bal libraries, and child weltare. The
loss of these programs will have to
be borne necessarily by either fed
eral or state programs.
5. The budgetary and financial
impacts of the proposed forestry
initiatives would require the Tribes
to quickly exhaust their reserves
and curtail programs. It is pro
jected that these initiatives would
bankrupt the Tribe within a period
of three years.
At the Makah Reservation the .
impact on the Tribal budget is
severe, but even more acute impacts
may be felt in the off-reservation
economy. It is estimated that the
proposed forestry initiatives will
result in a reduction in havested
timber of 8,700,000 board feet each
year (58 percent reduction). Stum
page payments used to fund tribal
governmental operations will be
reduced by 23 percent. Approxi
mately 50 on-reservation jobs will
be lost accounting for approximately
$1,000,000 in salaries. Because the
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Reduction in annual harvest on the
20 million board feet.
i Iaiiiiha ii an iiiDliKif Aflksi mini.
n J currently backloggcd for forest deve-
"ll'lftl "w1
timber is processed off the reserva
tion, the impact in the surrounding
community will be the loss of 1 10
jobs with total salaries of $2,000,000.
The Warm Springs Tribes, who
manufacture their own timber, will
have an estimated reduction in
their annual harvest of about
20,000,000 board feet. The estimated
reduction of revenues to fund govern
mental operations as a result of the
forestry initiatives will be approx
imately $5,000,000 per year. The
Warm Springs tribes estimate that
150 jobs will be lost on the reserva
tion with a total salary of $3,000,000.
Many of these jobs are those of
non-Indians living near the reser
vation. The Tribes are the largest
employer in the northern central
Oregon area.
For the Navajo Tribes, the esti
mated decrease in the annual harv
est would be 13,000,000 board feet.
The impacts on the reservation
would be particularly severe at
Navajo because the effects are con
centrated on the reservation because
the reservation is large and self
contained. Tribal economic output
would decrease by an estimated
$29,000,000 annually resulting in
the loss of 318 jobs with an esti
mated salary of $ 1 1 ,000,000.
Conclusion
These Indian forestry initiatives,
when considered in conjunction
with initiatives relating to the trans
fer of educational responsibilities,
tribal trust funds management respon
sibilities, and other bureau initia
tives, constitute the greatest threat
to tribal existence since the termi
nation acts of the 1950s. It appears
to be a determined, well planned
effort to dismantle the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and alter the basic
trust relationship between the fed
eral government and the Indian
tribes. The proposals are ill advised
and should be immediately with
drawn by the Assistant Secretary.
"Privatization" and its ilk have
been tried by the Bureau previously
under different names. Most recently,
during the termination era we saw
similar attempts by the Bureau to
escape its responsibilities under the
trust relationship. Similar arguments
were made that "this is good for the
Indians," "other agencies or con
cerns are better able to manage
these resources than the Bureau,"
"these actions are in the best long
term interests of Indians. "The results
at Klamath, Menominee, and a
host of other reservations were dis
asterous. It is ultimately the land
base of Indian tribes that provide
them with a physical and spiritual
base for their continued existence
as Indian tribes. These initiatives
threaten the very foundation of
that land base for over 100 years.
Finally, we are very concerned
with the arrogance that has been
shown in developing and imple
menting these proposals. They appear
to be an attempt to implement
many of the misguided proposals,
that have generally been rejected
by Indian country, that were con
tained in the report and recom
mendations of the Presidential Com
mission on Indian Reservation
Economies in 1984. The Assistant
Secretary, who chaired that Com
mission, appears to be going even
beyond radical changes proposed
by that Commission. A good example
is the current proposal of the
Assistant Secretary to "privatize"
management of tribal trust funds
by transferring the Bureau's respon
sibility for that function to the Mel
lon Bank. The Assistant Secretary
is proceeding with this proposal
despite the objections of Indian
tribes. This is despite the Presiden
tial Commission recommendation
that this step only be taken "with
tribal concurrence." The policy of
tribal concurrence as recognized
by the Indian Self-determination
Act no longer appears to be a part
of the Assistant Secretary's program.
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