Tribal council, EPA form historic liaison

History was made Friday.

It was marked with all the trimmings of ceremony. American Indian drumming, singing and dancing, prayer, words of wisdom and U.S. dollars - 95,267 of them.

A partnership was formalized between the 27 Nevada tribes represented by the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection with the signing of a memorandum of understanding - the first of its kind in the state and the nation.

The signing at the Nevada State Library & Archives in Carson City marks a shared commitment between the tribes and the state to work toward a common goal - "to make the air cleaner, the water purer and the land protected," said Gerry Emm, environmental director for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

The money, a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will pay for a liaison position between the state and the tribes. The position is a paid-tribal position, but the tribal council has asked that the liaison work within the state's environmental division.

Twenty-seven-year-old Tansey Smith, a Pyramid Lake Paiute and Western Shoshone, will be the first to fill the position. Smith has a bachelor's degree in anthropology and has spent the past four years working with the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe on environmental projects and the Native American Graves Protection-Repatriation Act.

"My main objective is to develop that relationship between the tribes and the state," Smith said. "The tribes have not been included in any of the decisions being made concerning anything in the state."

She said part of the difficulty comes from cultural differences and some from history.

"A lot of it's history. 'Don't talk to the Indians.' That's how it's always been," she said.

"So many issues affect all our communities," said Greg Phillips, an EPA administrator who has been assigned to oversee the program. "Environmental issues don't adhere to jurisdictional boundaries. Working together is the only way to resolve these issues and protect all our communities. The only way to do that is through an understanding."

A member of the Omaha Tribe from northeastern Nebraska, Phillips said he hopes to build a relationship where "we may not always agree, but you'll at least be able to talk."

Smith's first order of business is to work with the 27 individual tribal governments to develop protocols for addressing issues. Each autonomous government has a preference for dealing with the U.S. government and it will be up to Smith to find out how.

At the end of the first year she hopes to gather everyone "so they can communicate as far as their projects, and concerns - time to talk and get to know each other," she said.