NATIVE AMERICAN CONSULTATION
Summit Envirosolutions (Summit) offers services associated with assisting
agencies in conducting Native American consultation. As indicated by the
recent guidelines (June 2000) supplied by the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), the first step
is to identify which Native American tribal governments and groups are
affiliated with the project area (Area of Potential Effect). The second
step is to determine individuals or tribal government representatives
that will act as primary contacts and review reports for the duration
of project planning and then to agree to a process and timeframe. Initial
contacts by phone follow official notification to approved (by the State
Historic Preservation Office [SHPO]) interested groups. Face to face meetings
are scheduled appropriate to the scale of the project. Summit’s
ethnographer has done extensive background research of published and archival
sources and brings extensive understanding of tribal history and current
politics to initial meetings.
Initial meetings establish rapport, introduce the project and the opportunities
and limitations of heritage resource legislation. One goal is to elicit
names of cultural specialists for in-depth interviews focused on land
use and resources in the APE.
Field trips to the project are important for tribal representatives and
for these focused interviews with cultural specialists. Ethnographic work
for purposes of consultation is best initiated as early in the planning
process as possible to surface potential issues and work collaboratively
with tribal representatives to propose mitigation.
Each step includes levels documentation to verify a "good faith
effort" in consultation, including: SHPO concurrence with tribal
groups to be consulted; list of project initiation letter
recipients; contact log to document phone conversations; meeting notes;
and a final
report that documents purpose, methods, findings, and recommendations.
Confidential appendices may include TCP locations and other
information. Tribal representatives should review administrative drafts
of these reports.
