U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) senior advisor to the Secretary for Tribal Relations Janie Simms Hipp of the Chickasaw Nation, adds a comment in support of USDA Office of General Council for Civil Rights Rick Gibson (standing), the lead attorney for the Keepseagle Settlement, during his briefing to the USDA Council for Native American Farming and Ranching (CNAFR).
Combative and defensive. That’s the attitude Henry Porter Holder expected from U.S. Department of Agriculture officials last week during the inaugural meeting of the Council for American Indian Farmers and Ranchers.
He left with a different perspective.
“I was a little worried coming here,” said Holder, a producer with the Choctaw Nation in Soper, Okla., and one of the original signers of the Keepseagle vs. Vilsack class action lawsuit that claimed the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against Native Americans by denying them equal access to credit in the USDA Farm Loan Program. “The attitudes I encountered previously with USDA had been poor, but I have been very impressed with the attitudes and involvement of all USDA officials during this meeting. This has been a great start and I could not be more pleased. USDA has opened the door to heal old wounds and help Indian Country.”
The 15-member council formed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack held its first meeting Aug. 13-15 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., in hopes of bringing agricultural issues affecting American Indians to listening ears at USDA.
The `three-day meeting featured presentations from each of USDA’s mission areas, The White House and other organizations representing American Indian communities.
“Just from being around this council, I can see that moving forward they will bring ideas and recommendations that will help FSA and all of USDA to be of assistance to Indian Country,” said Farm Service Agency Administrator Juan M. Garcia.
Council members voiced concerns regarding outreach efforts of many USDA programs and initiatives.
Mary Thompson, a producer in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, N.C., said she was unaware of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative and programs offered by the Risk Management Agency.
“I believe the breakdown is at the local and state levels. It’s a funding issue,” said Thompson. “We can’t get to them if we have to go 20 miles to the closest office and they don’t have the resources to get to us.” She added that the positive attitudes and enthusiasm of USDA officials in Washington don’t trickle down to the local level.
Garcia told the councils that FSA is aiming to improve its outreach efforts but help is needed to spread the word.
“In FSA we know that outreach is central to effectively delivering our programs in every community,” said Garcia. “But we’ve lost about 1,500 employees throughout the country due to recent budget cuts. That makes our outreach efforts more challenging to deliver, and means we rely on good partnerships to get the word out. .”
Mark Wadsworth, Natural Resources/Range Management, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Blackfoot, Idaho, said his tribe didn’t learn about the Conservation Reserve Program until eight or nine years after it was implemented, causing issues with his tribe entering land into the program.
“We didn’t find out about CRP until 1992-93,” said Wadsworth. When he tried to apply for the program, he was unable because many of the counties had met the 25 percent limit. Wadsworth said because county boundaries overlap tribal boundaries and the wording in the CRP regulations does not specify state, county and tribal boundaries, Native American Indians were left out.
The tribe appealed and was able to enroll nearly 20,000 acres into the CRP program; however, with the 10 year reenrollment period approaching, Wadsworth said they are running into the same problem.
“We are fighting the same battle,” he said. As part of the council Wadsworth hopes to make changes to CRP that will allow for recognition of tribal boundaries.
Garcia agrees that changes need to be made. “We need to study our policies and determine how to make some allowances for tribal boundaries in CRP,” he said.
Meanwhile, council members are eager to get started making recommendations that will benefit tribal communities.
“If we finish like we started, we are going to make some huge changes,” said Holder. “I don’t expect them to happen the next day or within the next year but changes that will benefit my kids and grandkids.”
Thompson expects a great outcome also. “I hope we can get our thoughts together, make recommendations and get through the process expeditiously in order to get the results on the ground,” she said.
