Indigenous USDA Lawsuit Information -
Gathering in the Black Hills for a Summit on Indigenous Agriculture

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By Glenda Embry
     Spearfish, SD - Over 125 tribal representatives, producers, landowners, and college and government officials gathered in the Black Hills last week for a Summit on Indigenous Agriculture. According to the agenda, the Summit was in recognition and support of Indigenous agriculture and its contributions to tribes' economic survival.
     The summit whose theme was a Vision for the New Millennium brought participants from as far away as Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming as well as the 16 tribes of the Great Plains Region which includes North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.
     According to Claryca Mandan Intertribal Agricultural Coordinator, Northern Plains Outreach Office in New Town, who helped organize the summit, "the participants wove a vision . . . for future generations of farmers and rancher".
     For the future, the participants envision a Full Service USDA Center on each reservation and restoration of the BIA Grant and Direct Loan Program; a Native American Finance Corporation which would create opportunities for all indigenous people; syndicated marketing of Native American Beef and Buffalo; recognition of tribal colleges and universities role in Land/Agricultural Education; special indigenous Farm Bill Legislation and an adequate Settlement and institutional change in USDA for past discrimination.
     Three working groups on Natural Resources, Capital Finance and the USDA Lawsuit reviewed the days agendas and put together 10 resolutions which were passed by the participants in a meeting chaired by Dennis Huber, Chairman of the National Indian Livestock Association. The first resolution passed asked that Cora Jones, BIA Director for the Great Plains Region, come to each reservation and explain the P.L. 103-177, the Farm Bill; the group also voted to ask the BIA to allow each tribe to contract all appraisal services. The third resolution requested that Great Plains Regional Tribal Chairman's Association include tribal colleges and universities in all aspects of land use, planning, development and demonstrations; and that the GPRTCA assist tribal colleges/universities in procuring funding to train land appraisers regionally. The group passed resolutions allowing for the formation of a marketing syndicate and another to define and develop a legal framework for this marketing syndicate. They voted to adopt he Private Land Initiative proposed legislation sponsored by the Intertribal Agricultural Council subject to review and amendment by the tribes.
     The tribes in their resolutions are asking for amendments to the Farm Bill to include: Full Disaster Declaration Authority for tribes, the same as states per Presidential Executive Order Number 13084. Tribes are also asking for changes in the American Indian Livestock Feed Program regulations to determine payment amounts by head counts only and eliminate the need for feed receipts. Another amendment proposed to the American Indian Livestock Feed Program was to eliminate the ability of non-Indians leasing Indian lands to participate in the Program.
     Chairman Tex Hall made a motion for tribes pass a resolution to ask that USDA declare all reservations as single service units regardless of county boundaries and that USDA further provide staff and funding for each reservation single service area. The motion passed unanimously. In the recruitment and hiring of USDA staff, tribes are asking USDA to look at the composition of the people they serve and are asking that the staff reflect the communities they serve.
     The tribes also voted to appoint a 12 to 15 member committee to oversee the USDA Class Action Lawsuit, with representatives from producers and tribes. The composition of the group would be 3 representatives from reservations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska along with 1 representative from Wyoming and Montana and the Southwest and Oklahoma.
     The Summit was held in the sacred Black Hills in keeping with past traditions of intertribal council meetings and was co-hosted by the Three Affiliated Tribes and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.