INTER-TRIBAL COOPERATION & COORDINATION Tribes and multi-tribal organizations have already been working aggressively together to seek stimulus and emergency funding for their people during the current crisis. There have also been clashes and conflict over the division of the proceeds authorized to date. Both patterns preexist the pandemic and are the natural outgrowth of the combination of mutual and competing interests present in Indian country in the underfunded and not fully controllable or predictable environment of U.S.-Tribal relations. During the recovery process in all three phases and across all industry sectors, cooperation, coordination and mutual support between tribes and tribal organization will be even more important than ever. This is not merely for defensive purposes, to protect what tribes have and recapture what has been lost in the crisis. It will also be critical to capitalizing on the new opportunities presented by the pandemic and its aftermath that can allow tribes to move past recovery to new advancement with the right set of circumstances. Our recommendations presented below in this regard are not offered as some sort of revelation or new idea. They represent what tribes are already doing and have done. Rather the recommendations are meant to encourage and support those steps within the broader context of the pandemic and recovery and our expectations of its effects on Indian country. Association/Organization to Association/Organization Tribes have many national and regional associations and organizations representing their interests at the state and federal level and working to disseminate information on opportunities and best practices to their member tribes. These highly effective organizations already communicate and coordinate in various ways where their interests overlap and offer mutual support even in other areas. These efforts will need to intensify even further during and after the recovery process in both frequency and formality to position Indian country as a whole to best benefit from new opportunities that we anticipate will arise. Given our expectations, already discussed, regarding shifts in international trade, supply chain diversification, growth in transportation and warehousing, government stimulus efforts, government funding needs and financial market pressure, coordination in messaging and focus across different tribal associations will greatly enhance the efforts of each individually to minister to tribal needs in its particular area of expertise. This does not mean lockstep efforts or setting aside priorities unique to only once such association or set of tribes in favor of only those important to Indian country as a whole. Individual, divergent and even on occasion competing efforts cannot and should not be eliminated. However, if multi-tribal organizations can move aggressively to provide unified support for areas that do bridge constituencies and concerns and to develop a common language of phrasing, visualization and emphasis for those areas they can not only increase their impact in such areas of advocacy but also increase the power of their individual messages through the appearance of unity and magnitude.
∴ PRESCRIPTIONS
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