Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a Dear Tribal Leader Letter
announcing a Tribal consultation on updates to Guidance for federal agencies to integrate Indigenous Knowledge in federal decision-making processes. This initiative was announced through a Memorandum issued by OSTP and CEQ during the November 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit. The OSTP and CEQ Memorandum recognized the importance of Indigenous Knowledge and created an ‘Interagency Working Group on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge’ to develop Guidance for federal agencies to integrate this knowledge into federal science and policy decision-making processes.
Details regarding this Tribal consultation are as follows—
USET SPF submitted comments to OSTP and CEQ on May 5, 2022 in response to Tribal consultations held on this initiative. USET SPF urged OSTP and CEQ to direct federal agencies to work with Tribal Nations to ensure that the definition and use of Indigenous Knowledge is holistic and recognizes ecological/environmental, natural, cultural, spiritual, and lived experience and observation knowledge sets. We stressed that federal employees should receive education on federal trust and treaty obligations and that federal agencies should be required to protect sensitive Tribal cultural information and knowledge from public dissemination. USET SPF also recommended that federal agencies seek additional funding from Congress for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and Tribal cultural and natural resource departments to assist in safeguarding our sacred sites, environment, and natural and cultural resources.
To view Framing Questions for this consultation, please view the Dear Tribal Leader Letter. Written comments in response to the Guidance developed for federal agencies to integrate Indigenous Knowledge into federal science and decision-making processes are due Monday, September 26, 2022 and can be submitted to ITEK@ostp.eop.gov. Questions regarding this consultation should be directed to ITEK@ostp.eop.gov.
For more information, please contact Brian Howard, USET SPF Senior Policy Analyst, at bhoward@usetinc.org.
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