Annual Accomplishments Report Training

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Transcript

Hello, my name is Kim Greenwood and I am the acting manager for the Tribal historic preservation program.

Today, Autumn and I are here to talk to you a little bit about the annual accomplishments reporting for the program. As many of you are aware from previous years, once a year there is a call for reporting, and this year as last year, it is an online link.

As I've been talking to tribes with questions about the form, it became apparent that maybe having a class today to discuss the reporting and types of answers that we're looking for might be helpful. And so, we've put together a few slides and a sample form with some examples of answers that work well and are the types of answers that we're looking for.

The answers on the sample form are actually real life answers from tribes who have completed their program and and had their reports approved. And they have given us permission to use their particular answers in the sample form. Before we get started, does anybody have any questions?

OK, no questions.

I'm going to turn off my camera and we will go to the slide show. We will go through the materials that we have and afterwards we'll take questions. Autumn has put into the chat the link for the online form that is the link that you will need to complete your annual accomplishments report.

The first question you all may be asking yourselves is why do you need to report? And, the the reason goes back to the agreement that was signed between your tribal leader and the National Park Service when the tribe applied National Historic Preservation Act.

And so, we are excited to go through this with you and address some of those questions.

This is the actual verbiage that is in that agreement and that your tribal leader has signed that talks about the need to have this annual report.

Within that agreement, there is a list of functions, and there are 10 functions that tribes may choose to assume from the SHPO, And, these functions that your tribe has assumed are in that agreement.

So, if you haven't looked at this section of your agreement for a while, it might be a good time to do so.

It will also help you in your reporting to know which categories you will report on and which ones you do not need to report on.

So starting the first couple talks about the comprehensive survey of historic properties and maintain inventories.

And, this directly goes to the online also on the form asks about tribal registers because we realize many tribes have their own registers.

So, this is another set that is a required part of the online form.

Some tribes choose not to participate in this particular function, and if you are one of those few tribes that do not, you would write in the description of the report that no work has been completed under this function because the tribe has not assumed this function.

Moving along, functions C, D, E & F are functions that tribes assume when they have the agreement and

This portion of the there's no direct questions on the online form about these particular functions, although there is a section on then form where if there is something in any of these functions that you would like to highlight, you're more than welcome to share that information on the online form. It is not required, but it is nice for us to see those types of activities.

The last four functions G and I are functions that are most often taken by tribes, and there are direct questions on the online form with regard to those functions.

H & J are functions that tribes do not take on.

Most often, those functions are left with the SHPO.

We want to cover two definitions as well because you need to relate to these definitions and having a good handle of what those definitions mean will help you be able to better complete the form.

There are questions on the form that ask directly about activities on tribal lands and, according to the NHPA, which has a little bit different definition of tribal lands compared to other laws.

A tribal land is all land within the exterior boundaries of your reservation and all dependent communities.

The number 2 is often considered lands outside of your reservation that are trust lands.

So, all lands within the exterior boundaries and all trust lands outside of the exterior boundaries.

The other category that you'll report on is ancestral lands, and we do not have ancestral lands defined like there is a definition for tribal lands.

And, each of you have your own definition of what your ancestral lands are, and whenever you see a question that asks information about ancestral lands, you will use your definition of your ancestral lands to answer those questions.

The other definition that we wanted to touch upon is, there are a number of questions relating to National Historic Preservation Act, Section 106 undertakings and the number of activities that you have done on tribal lands, and then again on ancestral lands.

And so when you're thinking about undertakings and determining those numbers for the form.

And these are the points that you want to be considering. Those undertakings that are carried out on or behalf of the federal agency. Those undertakings carried out with federal financial assistance. Those undertakings requiring a federal permit, license or approval.

And those undertaking subject to state or local regulation administered or pursuant to a delegation or approval by a federal agency.

So, sometimes, you may get funding from a state to do some activity, but if in some way the information or that activity that the state is doing we're going to take a break from the slide show and we're going to move to the sample reporting form.

And, so this probably looks familiar to you. When you click on the link that Autumn has put into the chat box, it will bring you to an online form.

So, you'll want to be aware of the questions and collect your data before you start filling out the form. The reason is you cannot go into the form answer part of it, leave and then come back later. Once you start on the form, you're going to want to go through all of the questions on the form and then hit submit.

Some of the beginning questions are pretty simple.

What your tribal historic preservation officer's name is, the date that you're submitting it, and there's a handy dandy little calendar here that you can pick.

The THPO's email address. And, then the first question is survey and inventory activities.

And, please write a description of these activities. So, what we have tried to do is make it clear if we want something written, a written answer, or if we want a number. And so, it's important that if it says description to please, to please . . .

If you see a question with description then this is a good place to write some information.

And here is an answer that really addressed what it was that we were looking for in Survey and Inventory activities. I'll give you a minute to read that answer.

And then, as we scroll down in the form, we will see right here it talks about "on tribal lands" and we're thinking about that definition from the law where tribal lands are all lands within the exterior boundaries of the reservation, and any trust lands that are outside of the exterior boundaries.

So, based upon the answer, the tribe included 195.48 acres, so everything is jiving between the answer and #5 and the answer in #6. In addition, from the verbiage that they said above, they have, because of the surveying and inventorying activities, they have added two additional properties or sites to the tribe's inventory. Now, one thing that is really important to keep in mind is having those numbers be the same, so you don't want to write different numbers in your description than what you actually have in your answers, because that's a trigger for us to give you a call to see where we were making some mistakes, or you know what it is that we need to resolve in those particular areas.

The next question 8 is the identification and nomination of properties to the Tribal Register or to the National Register. Please write a description. And this is one question that a few tribes have not taken on this responsibility.

You need to check your agreement to see if you . . . if you have a question on this one, check your agreement to see if you have taken on that function from the SHPO.

If the answer is yes, then you would need to share with us some information like this particular tribe has done and write an answer. If you have not taken on that particular function, then you would write a sentence that says no work has been completed under this function because we have not taken on this function from the SHPO.

You know, just something really simple like that works really fine.

One of the highlights of this particular answer are two things. It talks in the answer that a sacred lands file submission will be completed,

I'm sorry, my cursor is not working well.

A sacred lands file submission will be completed upon approval of a tribal resolution. So what they're telling us in this answer particular answer says four properties were nominated to the Tribal Register. This information is registered in CRIS, and the information is confidential.

So, the tribe is explaining to us, for these particular four sites, that the sensitivity of them are of a nature that they cannot tell us anything more, but that they have put them on and the information is confidential. If you are able to share some information about those sites, you know, then this is your opportunity to include it in your answer.

So, we scroll down to questions 9 and 10, they go and refer to the description question. At this point in time, the tribe has not yet turned in those particular . . . the work that they were doing for the National Register, so this number is 0.

And then for question 10, they said that they put four on the Tribal Register, and there's that four.

The next question talks about your educational activities. These are the activities that you are educating tribal members, the public, other people about historic preservation.

And, I just want to clarify that, because a few tribes have written in classes that they have attended, instead of classes that they're putting on for other people.

And so your description here is, it's a really nice opportunity to talk about how you are sharing information about historic preservation.

Pojoaque did a great job with theirs here. And, one thing, this is a section that's really nice that, if you choose to, you can also turn in photographs, and those are really helpful for us.

And, when we talk about all the good things that you're doing, often education is a part of that and often you can get good photographs from educational activities.

After you describe those activities, then you will go ahead and put in the number.

Now we're moving onto the federal undertakings on tribal lands under Section 106.

Again, definition for tribal lands are all lands within the exterior boundaries of your reservation and any trust lands outside of the exterior boundaries. This particular tribe had.

45. And then the next question is similar except for it wants to know on your ancestral lands, and again, ancestral lands is what you have determined your ancestral lands to be, And, this tribe has done 2708 reviews of federal undertakings on ancestral lands. The description here . . . your description does not have to be long.

And, one thing that I really wanted to highlight here is the Muskogee Creek has done a great job talking and summarizing the information.

You do not need to list every single undertaking that you reviewed, but summaries really work nicely here.

You can see that they talked about the number of properties. 523 Properties went as in 572. No effect. 178 no adverse effect. 14 adverse effect and 227 other out of the area.

So these types of pieces of information are really helpful and help gives us a scope of what it is that you're doing. And this tribe also chose to talk about the number of undertakings they reviewed by the different states in their ancestral lands. We've also seen this to be sometimes summarized with the different federal agencies that a tribe has worked with, so that's can be interesting too.

But how you do this?

It does not have to be long.

You do not have to list every project that you reviewed, but giving us some information about what it is that you've done with 106 and, personally, I as the acting manager of the program, this information about no effect, no adverse effect, adverse effect, that is really helpful to us.

This is also an opportunity that in 15 or 16, that if there was a particular project of interest that you would like to highlight or discuss that you could share that with us if you would like to do so.

Question 17 is the number of non-federal consultations that you've participated in with cities, states, other tribes, state agencies, things like that.

And question 18 is other MOA reporting.

And, this is the section that when we were reviewing the functions and those functions that I highlighted in blue, this is the section where you could report on those if you chose to.

We talked about, you know, providing photographs 19, 20 and 21 are the questions that go and refer to the photographs. Photographs are optional.

You do not have to, but it is a great opportunity for us to see what it is that you're doing. Also, I wanted to show any place where you see this little asterisk, any of those questions are mandatory questions. We do need an answer in those particular parts of of the form.

I will jump back to the PowerPoint.

So, Steve brought up that he's doing grants financial reporting, and he is doing program reporting, and so there is a connection.

They are two separate programs within the National Park Service, and we do work together, although our reporting is separate, and our ways to report are separate.

So, there is a connection, and it is referred to in the National Historic. Preservation Act law 302901, and it talks about how, through the Secretary, regulations and procedures can be developed and prescribed by the Secretary for the reporting. So, when your report comes in, when you fill out the online form and hit submit, that form comes to us and we will review that form.

If the information is what it is that we are looking for, I will put an approved stamp onto your report, and I will email you a PDF of that particular report.

So, that way, you know that your report was approved. If we have any questions, about your report, Autumn and I will be reaching out to you by telephone and email to try to resolve those problems, so that we can get your report approved. In addition to sending the report to you, you will see that I CC (carbon copy) Leanne Chapman. Leanne Chapman works in the part of NPS that handles the grants.

So, for her to be able to progress with you with regard to any grants, existing or future grants, she has to have a report from the Tribal Historic Preservation Program that has this "approved" stamp on it.

Okay, so if you're not in compliance with the THPP program reporting, then that puts at risk any funding that you would get from the Grants house. And, on the Grants house side, they are the ones that use the Grant Solutions reporting where you have to upload your 425s and I believe it's a 428, your property form and your financial report forms.

And, at this time, we'd like to take any questions that you may have.

It looks like some people have their hands raised in the Participants.

I will get out of this.

Sorry.

Ron, may I answer your question?

Can you hear me? Yes I can.

Okay, yeah, last year, when we were, when I tried to submit the whole report, I hit the "Submit".

Apparently, it did not go through, and so I hit it again. You guys still did not receive it. You sent me a notice that you had not received it, and we had communications with you.

That it didn't, that we were doing what we had done in the past, but it was not going through.

Has that been corrected?

I just started as acting in October, and I was not aware of that problem.

We have been receiving reports.

I have not had any reports of problems with that this year. Autumn, you are on the telephone.

Are you aware of the situation and do you have anything to share?

I am not sure about all of last year . . . I started in May with helping out with the team.

But, I know we haven't had any issues and us not receiving their report.

So, we have not received that issue this year.

Look, hold on.

Okay, well, we tried several times, and it was in communications.

I haven't, I don't have in front of me who I was speaking with, but I do have emails, and we will try it again this year and see if it works out.

And if you or anybody else has any problems, please call.

You know, give us a call or send us an email so we can help you sooner rather than later, because we don't want you to be frustrated and you know have lots of issues and problems like that so you know.

Please let us know when you're having problems or if you're filling out the form and you have a question about it instead of struggling and trying to figure out the answer, give us a call and we may be able to to help you figure out that answer real quick.

Thank you Ron. You're welcome.

Uhm, I may mispronounce your name, and I apologize, Ione. Ione. Ione, yes, and thank you very much.

Could I have a copy of the of your slides, please?

Yes, we will drop them into the chat, and if anybody is interested, we can also include the sample form. If folks would be interested in that,

I am yes, please. OK, great.

Thank you. Like you, I'm fairly new to the program, so I just needed this.

Thank you.

Thank you appreciate that.

Randy, how can I help you?

Randy, I think you're on mute.

How about there? Can you hear me? I can hear you.

Yes, I've been doing a lot of mitigation issues like with DoD, and we've been doing videos with drumming and stuff like that.

I don't know if I can attach that into this system here.

Is there another way that to do that, do you think?

Do you have, like if it's on YouTube or someplace like that, you can send us the link, and then we can access the link.

OK, 'cause I got it on thumb drives is what I have.

Are you thinking about posting them to like your tribal website?

Yeah, I could do that and then drop link in in there.

That would work great for us.

OK, alright thanks, thank you.

Uh, Johnna.

Hello, can you understand me?

Yes I can. I'm sorry.

I just took over this position October the 1st, and I know that we haven't been able to do anything because of COVID. Is that going to be held against us?

So, if you started in October 1st of 2021, this reporting is from October 1st of 2020 through September 30th of 2021, so you will need to look through the records of your predecessor to see if you can find any information. If there are particular tasks that your predecessor was unable to do, it's OK to say, "No work was completed under this function because of COVID."

That is an OK answer.

OK, and could you possibly list the contact information?

Yes, uhm Autumn, do you mind dropping in the THPO email address in there? I went ahead and did that.

I did mine, yours, and the program's email.

OK, and please do not email me directly. Please email the program. I would appreciate directly to the program, so that would be good there.

Thank you, you are welcome.

Any other questions at this point in time?

I have a question.

Yes Sir. Can you hear me, Kim?

Yes, I can. Okay, so if our work plan says . . . specifically, this is how ours is worded, "All National Register eligibility nominations are reviewed by the THPO and Advisory Review Board."

It doesn't say specifically that we will submit them to the National Register, it just says they'll be reviewed and will provide the . . .

Review Board will provide guidance to the THPO staff and principal investigators.

Any disputes regarding an evaluation of THPO will submit to issue to the keeper of the National Register,

So, I know that sounds kind of wordy.

But, does that exempt us from that section where we have to put them in? Is submitting?

You need to look at the agreement that your tribe signed with the National Park Service to see if you assumed the function for National Register. And if your tribe did, then you do need to report on that particular function.

OK, I'll look at this specific agreement and see if it says that in there.

Thank you. Sure.

Any other questions?

Randy has his hand up.

Randy, did you have another question?

Not me. Okay, I am working on attaching the accomplishments report and the PowerPoint, and we'll put that into the chat here. So, let me move this around a bit.

I'm going to quit sharing my screen, 'cause you probably all don't want to be watching me do all of this.

And Kim, sorry to interrupt, but it looks like Ron has his hand up again, also.

As I do this, can I answer your question, Ron?

I think his hand was up from

before and never put it down. Okay.

That's correct. Okay, sounds good.

Autumn, do you know how I'm supposed to attach this to the chat? The sample form?

Yeah, I can go ahead and look into that.

Is it the drop? It did not work.

It might be better if you email it. Okay! I can do that to the whole list- . . . is what I will do is to the list that I sent the information out about the the call today.

Then, I will go ahead and attach the sample form and the slides to that.

Does that sound good to everybody?

That sounds good to me. Thank you.

Okay, great! Welly, if there's no more questions, we can call it a day.

Hold on, Kim, real quick . . . this is Jeff again. Yes Sir.

Okay, so I'm looking at our notice of award, do you, can you say what specific section that would be looking under for that area? So, when you say notice of award, that sounds like your grant and not your agreement, between the tribe and the National Park Service.

It says that, too, remarks Grant Agreement between United States Department of Interior and then it has all the different articles under it. 'cause so, is there a, that's where that would be located at? I I'm pulling one up right now so hold on, and I'll show it to you real quick. Please, thank you. Sure.

Can can people see my screen?

Can't see your screen. Okay.

OK, this is a template agreement that you're seeing right now.

And so, it'll say, "Agreement between the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and it'll have your tribe's name for the Assumption of the of your tribe's Certain Duties and Responsibilities Pursuant to Title 54, blah blah blah. So, as with most documents written by lawyers, there's a lot of "where as-es" and as we go through this form, there is a section right here, "The National Park Service and the tribe do hereby agree to the following: Number one, the tribe assumes responsibility on tribal lands for the following functions:" And, so this is the section that you're going to want to look at, so here it talks about surveying and inventorying. And here it is, "Nominating eligible properties for the National Register of Historic Places." So, you would be looking to see if your agreement has this particular paragraph on there.

That's great.

Any other questions?

If there's no more questions, then I thank everybody for jumping onto this online meeting today. And if you do think of a question later on, please feel free to call me. My number is 202-354-6463. Or you can send your questions to the THPO underscore program at nps.gov email address and we will get back to you as soon as we can with any answers.

Have a great day and will talk to you soon.

Duration:

38 minutes, 53 seconds

This video walks through the THPO accomplishments report and recommends how to answer the questions.