Over the last several years, NOAA expanded engagement with tribal nations in the North Atlantic region resulting in additional regional capacity, new internal training resources, increased attention from NOAA headquarters and targeted products for tribal nations. With new funding available though the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, and a new regional community of practice in development, tribal nations look to NOAA to help them become climate-ready. 

In late 2020, NOAA’s North Atlantic Regional Team (NART) contracted with the Udall Foundation’s National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution (National Center) to conduct an independent, neutral assessment of the needs, issues, priorities, opportunities, and obstacles associated with NOAA’s relationships and activities with tribal nations and organizations in NOAA’s North Atlantic region which incompasses thirteen states from Virginia to Maine. The National Center conducted one-hour phone interviews with 19 tribal representatives representing 13 tribal nations and a representative from United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc.The final report, delivered in Nov 2021, identified what’s working well, recommendations for improvement, and opportunities for future engagement.

What we heard:

• There is a need to understand all that NOAA does. While tribal nations may work with some parts of NOAA and value that expertise, tribal nations don't have a good sense of what else NOAA offers and different NOAA offices don’t always coordinate.
• Tribal representatives perceive a lack of support for regional NOAA staff and would like to see more headquarters engagement.
• Tribal staff can feel inundated by requests from state, federal and academic partners. They do not have the staffing or capacity to respond to everyone and suggested better coordination internally and across partners, and resources to help them navigate the NOAA landscape more efficiently. 

Recommendations include:

• Take more time to build lasting relationships with tribal nations. These individual relationships are very important. Set up a consistent, two-way exchange and develop accessible documents/resources that better connect NOAA opportunities to tribal needs.
• Use best practices for formal consultation. Ensure all staff are adequately trained; learn about tribal nations, attend tribal training.
• Find ways to assist tribes to add capacity (e.g. species recovery grants have funded tribal staff, for example). Reach out to other organizations/agencies to coordinate.

To address the recommendations, NART developed new internal resources for NOAA employees involved in tribal engagement, and created opportunities for engagement with other federal agencies and headquarters staff. An internal tribal engagement storymap was created for NOAA staff to learn about federal trust responsibility, sovereignty, treaties and land acknowledgements. Significant government actions that had, and continue to have, impacts on Indian Country are discussed, as well as the importance of using Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in NOAA. Information on each tribal nation is shared as well as any recent NOAA interactions to grow awareness.

NOAA Senior Advisor Zach Penney attended the Fall 2022 Tribal Leaders Summit and the EPA Region 1 Tribal Environmental Conference in Bar Harbor, ME. NOAA coordinated and facilitated subsequent monthly discussions with representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs and NOAA Fisheries, in addition to attending EPA regional tribal coordination calls. NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad also visited the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in March 2023. 

NOAA has many tools, educational resources and data that can help tribal nations address a host of challenging oceanic, atmospheric and environmental issues. To better assist tribal nations, NOAA is learning more about each tribal nation’s priorities and developing a NOAA Resource guide with interested tribal nations. To-date, web-based NOAA resource guides have been finalized for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe offsite link, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah offsite link) and one for the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Pleasant Point is in progress. Initial feedback has been very positive and engagement with other tribal nations in the region continues.

NOAA continues to work on coordinating internally so as not to overburden tribal nations with requests. The NART is discussing a regional tribal engagement community of practice to provide a venue for NOAA staff and partners to connect and coordinate engagement efforts in the North Atlantic, and help NOAA implement its new tribal engagement strategy.