National Park Service Director Chuck Sams has signed a director's order intended to strengthen working relations with tribes.

The directive builds an outline for prioritizing "our relationships with tribes, ensuring tribal leaders and the people they represent have a consequential seat at the table,” Sams said in a prepared statement issued Monday.

The order "codifies and expands existing NPS policies and procedures and affirms meaningful consultations with tribes as NPS policy priority," the statement said. "It supports directives in 2021 and 2022 from President Joe Biden reinforcing the federal government’s commitment to honoring Tribal sovereignty and including Indigenous voices in policy deliberation that affects Tribal communities; establishing uniform minimum standards for Tribal consultations for all federal agencies; and companion departmental policy issued by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland."

"I have spent much of my career working to improve the dialogues between Indian Country and the United States government on issues like conservation, co-stewardship of federal lands, and water resource management,” Sams said in the release. “I’m proud to support the priorities outlined by President Biden and Secretary Haaland and build on the incredible work of our park leaders and tribal liaisons."

Haaland and Sams, both enrolled tribal members, have made it a priority to better involve tribal governments with the National Park Service. 

Monday's release concerning moves to strengthen the procedures for consultations with Indian and Alaska Native tribes said the "United States has a unique, nation-to-nation relationship with more than 570 federally recognized Indian and Alaska Native tribes that is based on the Constitution, treaties, laws, and judicial decisions. Historically, many interactions between the federal government and tribal nations have been marked by conflict, power imbalance, and under-representation of tribal nations in decision making."

According to the release, the consultation process outlined by Sams: 

• Respects and upholds inherent tribal sovereignty;
• Understands and acknowledges the authority of Indigenous narratives and oral traditions;
• Amplifies the interests of Indigenous peoples and honors the common Indigenous point of view that natural resources are cultural resources;
• Provides notice to Indian and Alaska Native tribes and sets timelines for inviting them to consult as early as possible when park managers are considering an agency action, while supporting tribes to initiate consultations as well;
• Employs transparent, respectful, and frequent communication with Tribes.

Furthermore, the release said that "[M]ore recent federal policies and approaches aim to support tribes in managing their resources and lands, engage in economic development opportunities based on their own strategies and priorities, and self-govern through their own independent judgment and Indigenous values. In 2022, for example, the NPS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management issued new policy guidance to strengthen Indigenous co-stewardship of federal lands and waters, supporting an all-of-government approach to inclusive and equitable federal land management."

"Park managers will be able to use this policy directive to help facilitate consequential discussions and ensure tribal input is included early in the park decision-making process on issues that may directly or indirectly affect tribe’s and their ancestral lands, interests, practices, or traditional use areas," the release added.