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Our Work and Projects
Native Action has successfully tackled major environmental and social justice issues in Montana and Wyoming. The organization has established national precedents and much of their work is being replicated throughout the nation. Native Action has bridged racial justice barriers by establishing long-term alliances with traditionally hostile non-Indian ranchers, unions, townsfolk and organizations.
Past Accomplishments:
- Economic Justice - brought the first successful Federal Community Reinvestment Act case (in a split vote of the Federal Reserve Board, with Chairman Greenspan breaking the tie vote in favor of Native Action) to address bank red-lining and to establish the first local bank on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, which has since achieved over $18 million in new lending; the development of a local Chamber of Commerce; the drafting and passage of one of the first Tribal Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).
- Environmental Justice - enforced federal environmental laws via administrative challenges and litigation to protect the Reservation homeland from environmental harm caused by coal strip-mining, coal railroads, power plants, groundwater loss, and the illegal taking of coal bed methane gas.
- Cultural Preservation & Protection - successfully challenged the largest federal coal lease in history (the Powder River Coal Sales) that resulted in the voiding of all coal leases and, mandated that cultural impact analysis be a component of all Federal Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on or near Indian Reservations.
- Leadership - developed and implemented an intergenerational leadership project, which provides mentoring to girls in both traditional and contemporary contexts and that now has a 15-year track record of evaluation.
- Youth Development - provided the infrastructure to a youth led initiative that included complex litigation and grassroots advocacy efforts to get the first public high school on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, successfully culminating an effort that the Tribe had been engaged in for over 30 years.
New Program Objectives:
- Address Climate Change Issues from Fossil Fuels in the Rocky Mountain Region
Utilizing the federal environmental impact statement process for the Montana State-wide Coal-bed Methane Gas EIS, Native Action will continue to: 1) advocate for new studies and mitigation for methane seepage and ozone impacts; 2) organize tribal input and attendance in the Wyoming-Montana negotiations for air and water discharge permits via the federal and state EPA offices; 3) advocate for new technologies for carbon capture and groundwater re-injection; 4) Submit testimony and network for comprehensive Wyoming and Montana Climate Change Studies.
- Protect the unique culture and environment of Indian Tribes from the impacts associated with the current energy boom
Native Action will continue to: 1) engage in collaborative fund raising efforts with tribal and non-profit organizations to support the environmental work in the 5 State area (Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado); 2) maintain the Indian voice in the regional policy debates over energy development; 3) explore the development of new technology to address methane seepage, air quality, and water re-injection, rather than the current practice of the energy companies to waste billions of gallons of precious groundwater; 4) testify and document into the public record at environmental hearings the climate change impacts associated with new methane gap seeps; 5) identify and document the “predictor cultural species” that are threatened by the coal strip mining and methane gas development around the Reservations, i.e., beavers and sage grouse.
- Strengthen the ability of Indian people to effectively respond to energy development projects
Native Action has taken a lead role in the EIS process for a three million acre coal bed methane gas development project that will essentially surround the Cheyenne Tribe and border the Crow Tribe. Native Action will again take a lead role to attend meetings, organize public hearings, submit written testimony from tribal residents in the proposed development area, design and complete community surveys and put the findings into the Supplemental EIS administrative record. The new Supplemental EIS is expected to be finalized in 2009, but separate supplemental data analysis and meetings/hearings will occur in 2008 for new air and water quality impacts. It should be noted that EPA released a new air quality report to BLM, noting the potential for serious violation of Northern Cheyenne Class 1 Air Quality standards that will need to be mitigated in the Supplemental EIS. Accordingly, the EIS release date was pushed from 2008 to 2009.
- Grow the Institute for Native Action
Native Action will launch a new regional office in Missoula, Montana and hire staff to expand leadership development initiatives and initiate a research and action agenda for Indian Tribes in the Rocky Mountain Region. Native Action's goal is to build a pipeline of young people to carry on the social justice work that is so critically needed on Indian Reservations. Native Action's premise is that the leadership pipeline has to start on the Reservations, move into the colleges and technical centers and return to the Reservations.
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