* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FEDERAL CONSULTATION WITH TRIBES REGARDING INFRASTRUCTURE DECISION-MAKING * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Taken at RUSHMORE PLAZA HOLIDAY INN 505 N. 5th Street Rapid City, South Dakota November 17, 2016 APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * * * 3 MR. TRACY TOULOU: So to get started right 4 today, and then we'll go into introductions, 5 Virgil Taken Alive has agreed to come up and give us 6 a blessing so everything goes well today. 7 MR. VIRGIL TAKEN ALIVE: Good morning, friends 8 and relatives. Welcome you all to the heart of 9 everything that is, the beautiful He Sapa. 10 And, you know, I camped at the NoDAPL camp for 11 five weeks. I'm 63 years old, and I've been walking 12 our way of life for three decades, a little bit 13 more. It was really (unintelligible) time for me 14 sitting in that camp with all the people that came, 15 the prayers that they brought. I learned something 16 while I was there, or I realized something while I 17 was there, that on my mother's side she had a 18 grandmother named -- great grandmother named Naley 19 (phonetic) White Face Dog Eagle, my great, great, 20 great grandmother. She was a survivor at Wounded 21 Knee. 22 And on my father's side I also have a great, 23 great grandmother that fled when what was happening 24 in Minnesota, her and her brothers and sister. So 25 I'm also a survivor of that massacre. I didn't APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 3 1 realize that until I was there. And the prayer and 2 spirituality that was in that camp was so amazing. 3 I think I have a nephew from Crow Creek, Mr. Sazue, 4 that was there and can vouch for me, along with 5 other nephews at camp. And to watch what was going 6 on and to hear what was going on was totally absurd. 7 Water is life. (Native language). 8 So I thank you for asking me to offer the 9 prayer this morning. We pray for all of humanity 10 because water is life. And fresh drinking water is 11 depleting throughout the world. So I just wanted to 12 give us that thought and put us in the direction of 13 humanity and the generations to come. 14 (Blessing in Native Language) 15 MR. TRACY TOULOU: Thank you very much. 16 So we're going to get started here. And I just 17 wanted to talk a little bit about how we're going to 18 go through today. As to start, we're going to have 19 the panel introduce themselves. 20 And then we're going to ask C.J. who's going to 21 speak on behalf of the Great Plains Tribal 22 Chairman's Association about consultation and how we 23 need to consult in a good way. 24 And then what we're going to do is, with that 25 start, run through a list. You all signed up back APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 4 1 there. And we're going to run through the tribal 2 leaders first because this is a 3 government-to-government consultation and they 4 represent the tribal governments. We'll pick up one 5 leader from each tribe, work through all the tribes 6 that are listed, and then go back to other tribal 7 leaders. Because I know some of you brought more 8 than one tribal leader. And then we'll reach out to 9 others who may have an interest in speaking today. 10 So you know who's up here today, just a real 11 brief introduction, my name is Tracy Toulou. I'm 12 not the Affairs Program Manager for the Department 13 of Justice. I'm actually the Director of the Office 14 of Tribal Justice of the Department of Justice. 15 I've been to a number of these consultations. 16 They've been very, very useful I think to all of us. 17 I learned a lot. And hopefully there's some good 18 things we can take away from this and make some 19 positive changes. 20 And I'm going to, I guess, start to my left. 21 MS. JO-ELLEN DARCY: Good morning, everyone. 22 I'm Jo-Ellen Darcy. I'm the Assistant Secretary of 23 the Army Civil Works. To my left is Chip Smith 24 who's my advisor for tribal affairs in my office. 25 I'd just like to recognize that there are APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 5 1 additional folks from the Army Corps of Engineers 2 here today to listen. We have Lieutenant Colonel 3 Vail who's with my office, in the back. We have 4 Lisa Morales who is our Senior Tribal Liaison in the 5 Army Corps of Engineers' headquarters. We have 6 Jennifer Moyer who's our Chief of Regulatory. We 7 have Colonel John Henderson who's our commander over 8 the Omaha district. We have Joel Ames who is our 9 tribal liaison for the Omaha district and Joe 10 McMahan who's our regulatory chief in Omaha, and Tom 11 Tracy who is our chief counsel. And then Colonel 12 Eswis (phonetic) is joining us this morning, too. 13 He's from our inter-city district. 14 Thank you for having us. 15 MR. CHARLES SMITH: Chip Smith, Army Civil 16 Works. It's a pleasure to be here. I look forward 17 to listening and learning and continuing to work on 18 this next year, as I am a civil servant, and with 19 any luck I'll roll over and keep working on the 20 issues that we're here about today. Thank you. 21 MS. DARCY O'CONNOR: Good morning. I'm Darcy 22 O'Connor. I'm the Assistant Regional Administrator 23 for the Office of Water Protection at EPA in 24 Region 8, Denver. I'm honored to be here today and 25 listen. Thank you. APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 6 1 MS. VALERIE HAUSER: Good morning. I'm Valerie 2 Hauser, the Director of the Office of Native 3 American Affairs, the Advisory Council on Historic 4 Preservation. I want to thank you for welcoming us 5 to your homeland and thank you for coming to speak 6 with us today. I look forward to hearing what you 7 have to say about this very important topic. Thank 8 you. 9 MR. TEDD BUELOW: Good morning, everyone. My 10 name is Tedd Buelow. I work for USDA Rural 11 Development as the tribal liaison. I work with all 12 of our staff and tribes around the country. I'm 13 also located in Denver, Colorado. 14 Just so you know why the USDA is at the table, 15 we do help finance infrastructure projects with 16 tribes and with non-tribal communities and 17 properties for electric, water and broadband. So if 18 you're ever interested in our projects and our 19 programs, we'd like to talk to you about those as 20 well. 21 But I'm also joined by some folks here from 22 South Dakota and Denver from the USDA. Our State 23 Director for Rural Development Bruce Jones is here 24 with me, Jeff Zimprich who's the State 25 Conservationist for the Natural Resource APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 7 1 Conservation Service. And then USDA Forest 2 Service's Regional Tribal Director Susan Johnson is 3 here. So I think that's the USDA contingencies. 4 It's a pleasure to be here. I'm honored, ready 5 and excited to hear your comments today. 6 MR. LARRY ROBERTS: Good morning, everyone. My 7 name is Larry Roberts. I am the, heading up Indian 8 Affairs at the Department of Interior. 9 I wanted to start off by saying thank you all 10 for traveling here today to be part of the 11 consultation. I know that some of you have traveled 12 from far away, left your families, left your duties 13 that you have back at home. So thank you for doing 14 that. 15 It amazes me that we're, in the history of our 16 United States that we're just having this 17 conversation on infrastructure development today in 18 2016. I think it's long overdue, and I think 19 it's -- you know, it says something about all of the 20 different agencies here consulting with tribal 21 leadership on this important issue. 22 And the important issue is not only 23 infrastructure but the importance of reserved treaty 24 rights and trust responsibilities. As an Oneida 25 person, our tribe signed a treaty with George APEX COURT REPORTING (605) 877-1806 [email protected] 8 1 Washington in 1794. That treaty was broken the next 2 year. And so as we have these conversations today 3 about how to move forward in thoughtful planning for 4 infrastructure, I look forward to all the knowledge 5 that we're going to hear in this room. And 6 hopefully we'll continue to push for a brighter path 7 for our future generations. 8 MR. BRUCE LOUDERMILK: Good morning, everyone. 9 My name is Bruce Loudermilk. I am the Director for 10 the Bureau of Indian Affairs.