U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack on Dec. 7, 2023, announced the first grant recipients under the Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program, as well as advances in Forest Service co-stewardship with Tribes. More than $7 million will support tribal nations in Alaska. The Sitka Conservation Society received one of the grants.

Secretary Vilsack made the announcements at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit, where Tribal leaders gathered for nation-to-nation conversations with President Biden and senior administration officials on key priorities, new policies, and critical issues facing tribal nations.

Two tribal nations in Alaska are receiving Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grants in the first round of funding:

• The Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor is receiving a $1 million grant to buy and modernize an unused processing facility that will help the community address food shortages due to climate change. Members of the tribe live in a remote village accessible only by boat or small plane. Severe weather can delay food deliveries, and algae are depleting fishing stocks. The funding will allow the tribe to increase the amount of local game and fish they can process using traditional methods. This includes meat from the Sitkalidak bison herd the tribe manages.
• The Tribal Government of St. Paul Island is receiving a grant of more than $668,000 to re-establish a local reindeer meat processing operation at the Aleut Community Store. The Aleut community will use the grant to develop a program to harvest, process, market and sell local reindeer products. The project will increase the availability of locally sourced organic meat products and drive profits back to the island. It also will help tribal members remember, relearn, and practice traditional herding techniques important to the cultural heritage of the island.

At the Summit, Secretary Vilsack announced a partnership with the Sitka Conservation Society to create a new curriculum to educate rural citizens, especially Alaska Native Youth about the Federal Subsistence Management Board, which manages fish and wildlife for subsistence uses on federal public lands and waters in Alaska. The Sitka Conservation Society will receive $300,000 through a cooperative agreement to support this endeavor.

“Subsistence and traditional and customary resources are extremely important to the people of Southeast Alaska,” Sitka Conservation Society Executive Director Andrew Thomas said. “The forest and waters provide food that takes care of families and households throughout the year. Ensuring that the fish, animals, shellfish, kelp, plants, fungi, and everything else that is harvested and gathering is managed and protected in ways that support the long-term opportunities for us to use and depend on these resources across generations is essential for food sovereignty and food security in rural communities across Southeast Alaska. This program will help educate the next generation of Southeast Alaskans on how they can participate in the stewardship of these natural resources through the federal subsistence management program, which is critical for ensuring that the food resources and traditions that have long supported communities to thrive in Alaska will continue to do so in the future.”

In 2023, the Forest Service signed 120 new co-stewardship agreements, and nearly tripled annual co-stewardship investments with tribal communities. These co-stewardship agreements incorporate Indigenous knowledge such as traditional plant management and ethnobotany, cultural interpretation, and traditional land stewardship methodologies and techniques.

These agreements mark important milestones in relationship-building with tribal governments and are significant advancements in the co-stewardship of the ancestral lands of tribal nations. Alaska’s first co-stewardship agreement is:

• Co-stewardship of the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area: The Forest Service and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida have implemented a Memoranda of Understanding on co-stewardship of the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area. This agreement will ensure that the history and cultural connection tribes have to the glacier and the surrounding lands are represented through cooperative interpretive programs.

Coinciding with the White House Tribal Nations Summit, Secretary Vilsack, the Chair and Ranking member of Senate Indian Affairs, and the House and Senate Agricultural Committees named 11 new members to the inaugural USDA Tribal Advisory Committee. This is a permanent committee created by the 2018 Farm Bill to ensure Tribal perspectives are well represented at USDA and to ensure the Department’s policies and decisions are informed by the unique Nation-to-Nation relationship.

For more information on co-stewardship agreements with tribes, visit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/31d169da03704089b28080c7e707bbc0.