At the regional level in the Midwest, the MRMTC gradually forged stronger ties to the Tribes in the region. Beginning in 2006, the Tribes were regular attendees at the semi-annual regional meetings. Over time, the tribal updates were moved from the “SRG Updates” section of the agenda to a more fitting place along with the member states in the Regional Roundtable reports. Representatives of TRMTC suggested that the Planning Guide for Shipments of Radioactive Material through the Midwestern States include contact information for the Tribes in the region. The committee agreed that the addition would improve the Planning Guide, therefore the suggestion was implemented in the 2015 edition of the guide. This section has remained a feature ever since. In 2013, the site visit to one of Michigan’s shutdown plants — Big Rock Point — inspired the committee participants from that state to try to develop a working relationship with the Tribes that might be affected by shipments from the site. The state’s solo efforts met with limited success. As a result, in 2018, Greg Gothard, then co- chair of the committee, suggested that CSG Midwest undertake a project to integrate or engage Tribes in the region. Supported by funding from the DOE-NE cooperative agreement, CSG Midwest organized a committee work group to develop recommendations for engaging Tribes in the Midwest. Approved at the Spring 2019 committee meeting, the MRMTC Regional Tribal Engagement (RTE) Work Group’s recommendations urged all states to “open lines of communication in each state that has a tribal presence,” starting with researching the agency’s or state government’s framework for tribal relations and identifying liaisons that could be resources (MRMTC RTE Work Group 2019, p. 1). Once the lines of communication were opened, committee members were encouraged to work with Tribes to meet their needs for training or participation in exercises. The recommendations also called for CSG Midwest to use its cooperative agreement funding to facilitate tribal participation in regional meetings and exercises, and to arrange “a briefing to help committee members and other Midwestern state attendees to become more culturally aware of tribal traditions, customs, and norms” (ibid., p. 2). The MRMTC RTEWork Group was tasked with leading the committee’s efforts to follow up on the recommendations. In 2019, the emphasis on tribal engagement prompted the committee to invite the active Tribes in the region to take part in a transportation tabletop exercise that was featured at the MRMTC’s Fall Meeting in Indianapolis. Kaci Studer of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security not only hosted the meeting; she was a committee co- chair and a member of the RTEWork Group. Ms. Studer invited a representative of a recently recognized Tribe in Indiana — the Pokagan Band of Potawatomi Indians — to attend the workshop and the regional meeting. That invitation was accepted, which gave the MRMTC the first opportunity to begin forging ties with a new potential tribal partner. The RTE Work Group continues its activities today in 2020. On June 2, the group sponsored a virtual meeting to brief members of the MRMTC and other interested parties on the status of Tribes and their lands and to share best practices for building relationships
DOE team visits to shutdown sites; DOE-NE granted this request for both the states and Tribes beginning with the Midwestern site visits to Zion, La Crosse, and Big Rock Point in the summer of 2013 (ibid., p. 6). DOE-NE eventually decided to provide the same support for Tribes that the office was already providing to the SRGs. This was the correct move on DOE’s part. Unfortunately, DOE-NE funded the new tribal cooperative agreement by taking funding away from the SRG cooperative agreements. To fully fund a new Tribal Caucus, each of the four regional agreements was reduced by 25 percent from the first year’s level of funding (MRMTC 2014a, p. 1). This reduction did not significantly hamper the SRGs’ ability to conduct work; however, it was another unforced error that had the potential to create tension for state-tribal-DOE relations in the early years of the NFST Planning Project (MRMTC 2014b, pp. 5-6). With a new cooperative agreement and with staff from the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Tribal Caucus gained parity with the SRGs on the transportation planning stage. In 2018, the Tribal Caucus was renamed Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, or TRMTC, to better reflect the body’s purpose. Members of TRMTC participated in Transportation Core Group meetings, DOE-NE’s visits to shutdown sites, and NTSF ad hoc working groups. When the Section 180(c) Ad Hoc Working Group conducted the policy implementation exercise in 2014- 2016, a representative of the Prairie Island Indian Community participated. Tribal representatives also have co-led NTSF ad hoc working groups that focused on communications and rail/routing of spent fuel shipments. In 2019, the TRMTC hosted its first annual meeting of the NTSF in Arlington, Virginia.
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