18
S moke S ignals
MAY 15, 2016
Tribe aids in developing guide for energy development
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
As the United States continues
to search for alternative energy
sources, which could include wave
and wind energy on the West Coast,
the possibility of energy develop-
ment affecting Tribal cultural and
historical resources increases.
That is why the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde, along with
two other Tribal communities, par-
ticipated in a four-year process to
help the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management create a new guide to
help federal agencies and Native
American communities identify
areas along the West Coast that
could be affected by future offshore
energy development.
The guide was developed collab-
oratively by the bureau’s Pacific
Outer Continental Shelf Regional
Ofice, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s Of-
ice of National Marine Sanctuaries
and the Tribal Historic Preserva-
tion ofices of the Makah Tribe in
Washington state, the Yurok Tribe
in California and the Grand Ronde
Tribe in Oregon.
“Understanding the types of im-
portant archaeological and cultural
resources that could be affected is
essential to their preservation,”
said Joan Barminski, Paciic Re-
gional Director
of the Bureau of
Ocean Energy
Management.
“The approach
outlined in this
guide recognizes
that places and
cultural heritage
Briece Edwards
resources can
have different or multiple mean-
ings and levels of signiicance based
on how people from different cul-
tures, times or backgrounds have
interacted and continue to engage
with the respective landscape.”
The bureau says that the potential
for important coastal and marine
Native American sites being affect-
ed will become more likely as in-
terest in offshore renewable energy
development increases. The effects
could include disturbing archaeolog-
ical sites and traditional use areas.
The new guide uses a cultural
landscape approach that inte-
grates traditional knowledge with
environmental science, historical
information and archaeological
knowledge in an effort to reduce
potential conlicts while illing in
critical data gaps in ocean planning
and resource management.
“The goal is to develop a proactive
approach to working with Native
American communities to identify
areas of Tribal significance that
need to be considered in the plan-
ning process,” states a bureau lier.
“Information from this effort will
help facilitate decision-making pro-
cesses that take into consideration
the importance of these locales, and
give Tribal communities a more
powerful voice during regional en-
ergy planning.”
Tribal Senior Archaeologist
Briece Edwards said recognition
of Tribal voices in the planning
process was very important.
“This was a big project and prec-
edent setting for the type of work
that it is,” Edwards said. “The Tribe
helped set the stage for this project
as part of the consultative process
for the cultural resources. Here was
an opportunity to look in-depth at
the cultural connections to that
area, as well as serving as a lead
developing the project and meth-
odology. It also was an opportunity
to redeine how a federal agency
heard, recognized and integrated
Tribal understanding.”
Edwards said the guide is a se-
ries of recommendations created
by Tribes and handed to a federal
agency that empower Tribes and
reinforces the message that Tribal
knowledge, understanding and
perspectives are valid and need to
be included in the planning process.
“The guide gives standing for the
Tribes saying, ‘This is important.’
You need to hear from us that this
is important,” Edwards said. “We
can now point to this document to
demonstrate how Tribal cultural
concerns about place it into exist-
ing processes. It’s about protecting
the Tribe’s cultural resources.
This is a way that a federal agency
listens to the Tribe’s concerns for
those resources.”
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