Warner and Salazar: Shared Stewardship
In Shared Stewardship, Elizabeth Kronk Warner and Jesús A. Salazar (both Utah Law) explore the role of tribal governments in the management of U.S. public lands, critiquing historic patterns of excluding tribes from co-stewarding of these important places. The authors also examine the existing opportunities to forge new and expansive paths for new relationships of co-stewardship in order to facilitate “better management of national treasures.”
The article begins by noting that tribes are in a unique position to exist as co-stewards over public lands for two reasons. First, tribes possess a deep commitment to environmental preservation. For example, land and its environment can have special meaning for tribal citizens as ancestral homelands or by holding a particular religious significance. Second, tribes hold traditional ecological knowledge that can benefit the future stewardship of natural resources and land. Traditional knowledge consists of observations of a specific land over time. This makes traditional knowledge effectively a collection of experiences over generations of Indigenous people, offering invaluable insights.
In addition, the authors outline how tribes may have legal justifications of co-stewardship. The federal government has fiduciary obligations to tribes, and these duties arise from treaties preserving tribal rights and federal trust responsibilities. These rights can include land preservation, which directly supports co-stewardship. Plus, as separate sovereigns, tribes possess the legal capacity to innovate in ways from which other sovereigns, such as the federal government, can learn.
Furthermore, co-stewardship is consistent with federal agencies’ strategic goals. An example is the U.S. Department of the Interior’s strategic goal of promoting well-being, equity, and justice for tribes. Co-stewardship is also relevant under statute. Certain statutes, such as the National Historic Preservation Act, require consultation for any undertakings by a federal agency that affect qualifying historic sites. The goal of consultation is to minimize and mitigate adverse effects on historic properties – including important places of significance to tribal communities.
Finally, the authors offer a potential framework for future co-stewardship with two case studies: the Bears Ears National Monument and the restoration of the Great Salt Lake. In this telling, both case studies are examples where co-stewardship relationships benefited government agencies and land conservation efforts and could provide guidance to future co-stewardship efforts. The authors ultimately encourage institutionalizing existing guidance on tribal co-stewardship into new Congressional legislation.
