Rocky Boy sets nation-to-nation agreement for recovery

For the first time in a six-state region, a Native American tribe has signed an agreement to act as a sovereign nation in administering its own disaster funding.

Raymond "Jake" Parker, chair of the Chippewa Cree Tribal council at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, and Robin Finegan, regional Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, signed a nation-to-nation agreement at Stone Child College at Rocky Boy Tuesday.

Finegan commended the Tribal representatives for their persistence, dedication and commitment to sovereignty, as well as their positive attitude and hard work.

"This is not an easy project you're taking on," she said.

The agreement will allow the Tribe to administer its own federal disaster funds from the disaster declaration President Barack Obama signed on July 12. The declaration was signed due to damage from severe flooding in mid-June, following flooding in May.

Typically, the state government administers the disaster funds, with local governments acting as sub-grantees, as is the case with the Hill County government in dealing with its flood damage.

Federal law allows tribes, as sovereign nations, to administer their own disaster funding. This is the first time in FEMA's Region 8, which includes Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Utah, that a tribe has done so.

The agreement will allow the Rocky Boy government and the U.S. government to work together directly and ensures that the Tribe will receive all eligible disaster funding to help its members recover, Finegan said.

Parker said in an interview after the ceremony that he believes the agreement is a step forward in government-to-government relations for tribes around the nation.

"We are a real government," Parker said. "In my mind, that's what it proves. That the federal government recognizes us as a nation."

Finegan said in an interview that the process is not easy or simple. The Tribe must do the work to administer its own funds, as well as crafting a disaster mitigation plan which it now is working on, with the help of FEMA. The complex process takes hard work, she said.

"The Tribe doesn't come at this lightly," Finegan said. "We don't just say, 'OK, here you go, here's the money.' … It's a big responsibility."

The signing ceremony began and ended in Indian tradition, starting with a pipe ceremony before the signing, and closing with a song and drum ceremony. After the ceremony, the Tribe presented gifts of Pendleton blankets with their patterns including the Chippewa Cree Tribal seal to several of the federal officials.

The ceremony came just days after Obama approved another rarity — the federal government will fully fund permanent repairs in the recovery effort.

"I am told that this only the third time in history that a grantee has received 100-percent funding," Parker said during the signing ceremony, thanking Gov. Brian Schweitzer and senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg, and others, for their work to gain the full funding.

He said after the ceremony that the 100-percent funding was crucial — with estimates coming in of damage between $28 million and $30 million, a 25-percent required match would have forced the tribe to come up with "7 million that we don't have."

Even if a 10-percent match had been approved, the Chippewa Cree Tribe could not have raised the nearly $3 million, he added.

Tribal council Vice Chair and state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, who acted as master of ceremonies at the signing, said the nature of the reservation puts it in a unique situation. The Tribe does not have tax revenues as a city or county government does, and any money it used for a disaster funding match would have to come from federal money already allocated elsewhere, he said.

Windy Boy said the damages are mounting. Repairing the Tribal health facilities is estimated to cost $17 million, repairing roads and other infrastructure is estimated at $6 million, and another $5 million will be needed for repairing the 259 homes damaged in the flooding.

State Rep. Tony Belcourt, D-Box Elder, the Tribal government's incident commander for the flooding at Rocky Boy, said the clinic suffered severe structural damage and will have to be rebuilt in a new location.

Ed Tinsley, the state Disaster and Emergency Services director, said the situation at Rocky Boy and in Hill County is the first disaster he has dealt with since he took his position in May. It was a good test for him, he added.

"I don't think we could get a much more difficult one than what we had right here," Tinsley said. "This one had all the elements."