Tribal Relations

Federally recognized Tribes have a formal, government-to-government political relationship with the federal government. This relationship means the federal government recognizes these Tribes have certain unique rights. For example, federally recognized Tribes can put land into trust. They are also eligible for federal services, funding, and benefits.

Non-federally recognized Tribes do not have this formal relationship with the federal government. However, federal recognition does not determine whether a Tribe is real or not. Instead, it indicates whether the federal government acknowledges the Tribe's sovereignty. Tribal sovereignty is the inherent right of Tribes to govern themselves. Tribes have been sovereign nations since well before the United States was even founded.

Gaining federal recognition can be an expensive and time consuming process. Two of the Tribes traditionally associated with Yosemite are not currently federally recognized. Both the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation and the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe have been seeking federal recognition for over 40 years!

Both rancherias and reservations are lands set aside for Native people. Like any other government, Tribes have governing power within the boundaries of their reservation or rancheria. This means they set and enforce the laws on the lands they manage.

The main differences between rancherias and reservations stem from how they were created. Reservations were usually created in the nineteenth century through processes such as treaties, military removal, and executive orders. Rancherias, on the other hand, were created through Congressional acts in the twentieth century for California Native Americans. As a result, rancherias only exist within California.

Tribal sovereignty is the inherent right of Tribal Nations to govern themselves. Sovereignty means Tribes make and enforce their own laws on their land. They are like any other nation in this way. And like other nations, their sovereignty is not given to them by the federal government of the United States. Their sovereignty is inherent, or something they have always had.

Tribal sovereignty has existed since time immemorial. This is because Tribes have existed and governed themselves since time immemorial. When European powers first contacted Tribes, they signed treaties with the Tribes as they would with any other foreign nation. The United States followed the example of the European countries after the United States was formed. In fact, acknowledgment of tribal sovereignty is enshrined in the US Constitution. Many other important documents also acknowledge and affirm Tribal sovereignty. These documents range from treaties to Supreme Court decisions to executive orders and more.

Although Tribes are sovereign nations, they exist within the United States. That means they are bound by federal law and subject to Congressional power. This complicated relationship with the federal government has eroded Tribal sovereignty in many ways. Despite these many challenges, Tribal Nations across the country continue to fight to protect their rights to govern themselves and to take care of their people as they have for millennia.

The federal government has specific duties and moral obligations to Tribal Nations. These obligations are also known as the federal Indian trust responsibility. The federal government has these duties because of its unique relationship with Tribal Nations.

Tribes have a unique status in the United States. They are considered "domestic dependent nations." Let’s break down this phrase word by word. Tribal Nations are nations, or sovereign entities that govern themselves. They are also domestic, meaning they exist within the boundaries of the United States. Finally, they are considered dependent on the federal government. This is because the federal government has both power over Tribal Nations and responsibilities toward them.

The federal government's responsibilities toward Tribes are the federal Indian trust responsibilities. These include a responsibility to protect Tribal treaty rights and lands, to provide healthcare and education to Tribes, and to uphold Tribal sovereignty, among others.

These duties date back to the treaties the United States signed with many Tribes. In many of these treaties, the US promised to protect and provide for the Tribes in return for their land. The trust responsibility has been upheld and reaffirmed repeatedly throughout our history. Many statutes, court cases, and other documents emphasize the trust responsibility. Some of the ways Yosemite National Park fulfills our part of this obligation to Tribes are through consultation and co-stewardship with the Traditionally Associated Tribes!

Land acknowledgments are usually written or verbal statements that aim to recognize the past, present, and future Indigenous peoples and communities associated with a specific place. These statements are usually given at the beginning of a gathering or located on an organization’s website.

Land acknowledgments can be a powerful tool for reminding us of the violent history of the land and the ongoing struggles Indigenous peoples and communities face today. They should serve as a starting point to inspire non-Indigenous people to take action and support Indigenous communities. If land acknowledgments are not done carefully, however, they can be just another form of harm against Indigenous people.

The next time you see or hear a land acknowledgment, think about what it’s doing. What is the statement trying to achieve, and who does this help? Does it inspire you to take action, and if yes, how so? If you want to write your own land acknowledgment, we encourage you to think about these questions and look at other resources as a starting point.

National Park Service policy requires parks to do frequent consultation with Tribes and other traditionally associated peoples. Below, we will explain what consultation means and why the Park Service does it.

Consultation is when the federal government discusses potential actions with non-federal groups. It is done to gain meaningful input from those groups about actions that may impact them. Consultation is a formal, government-to-government action when done with federally recognized Tribes. In certain circumstances, the federal government is required by law to do consultations. These laws usually apply to federally recognized Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and the Native Hawaiian Community. It is also National Park Service policy to consult with other traditionally affiliated people. This can include, for example, non-federally recognized Tribes.

Consultation is very important for everyone involved. As mentioned previously, consultation may be mandated. The federal government has a special relationship and responsibility to federally recognized Tribes. Formal, sovereign-to-sovereign consultation is a key element of this relationship. Consultation in general allows the federal government to learn from those it consults. With permission, agencies can incorporate that knowledge and expertise into their decisions. Through consultation, the consulted parties also have a say in actions that may affect them and their interests.

Here at Yosemite National Park, consultation is a regular part of Tribal Relations work. It’s used in the development of archeology projects or traditional plant gathering agreements. The park needs to conduct it to comply with laws like the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. Explore our website to find other programs where we use consultation.

National Park Service policy requires parks to do co-stewardship with traditionally associated peoples whenever possible. So what is co-stewardship, and why is it important?

Co-stewardship is all the ways the federal government and Tribal Nations work together to protect federal lands and waters. Other federal agencies that manage lands and waters also do co-stewardship, but this answer focuses on National Park Service policies.

When national parks and Tribal Nations work together, both parties benefit. Since Indigenous peoples have lived in their homelands for thousands of years or more, they know a lot about the land. They may choose to help parks improve protection and stewardship of the land with their knowledge. And by working with Tribes, parks can support Tribal cultural preservation efforts.

The National Park Service recognizes the importance of all of these benefits, which is why co-stewardship is policy. Federally recognized Tribes and the Native Hawaiian Community also have special relationships with the federal government. These relationships mean co-stewardship with them has a formal, legal, and political basis.

Yosemite National Park does a lot of co-stewardship with the Traditionally Associated Tribes. One example of this work includes collaborating with Tribes to return healing cultural fire to the park. Another project involves working with Tribes to restore the iconic black oak in the valley.

Traditional knowledge refers to the knowledge communities accumulate over thousands of years of living in a specific ecosystem. It is also called Indigenous knowledge, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or Native science.

Traditional knowledge is both broad and specific. It is broad because it is holistic, which means it encompasses all the different parts of life. It is about the environment, culture, spirituality, and more, all at once. It can also take many different forms. It may be passed down as oral knowledge or through technology or cultural practices or more. But traditional knowledge is also specific because it is developed by a community’s interactions with one part of the world over thousands of years. That community's knowledge is thus specific to that part of the world. Their knowledge about things like seasonal weather patterns, animal behavior and migration, plant uses, and so on, only apply to that region.

Traditional knowledge is also known as Native science because it is a science. Like the Western science taught in American public schools, traditional knowledge is an objective form of knowledge. It is based off observations of the natural world. It is tested and validated repeatedly as it is put into practice by generations and generations of people. It is always evolving, just like Western science, as people continue to use it, test it, and acquire new knowledge.

Traditional knowledge has been dismissed and disregarded for a long time. Only recently have more people in the natural resource and conservation fields begun to realize its importance and started to turn to Indigenous knowledge holders. For example, the Native people of Yosemite have always known that the valley’s famous oak woodlands needed fire to exist. In fact, they had actively created and maintained the lush, open woodlands through intentional and regular burning. After Yosemite National Park was established and park staff began suppressing fires, a lot of these woodlands disappeared. Today, the park works with the Traditionally Associated Tribes to steward and protect our remaining black oaks. We are also working with the Tribes to return cultural burning to the park.

Treaty rights are the rights Tribal Nations kept for themselves in the treaties many of them signed with the United States.

Treaties are legally binding documents signed between two sovereign nations. The existence of treaties affirms Tribes’ inherent sovereignty, or right to govern themselves. It also affirms the government-to-government relationship between Tribes and the federal government. Treaties are very important because they are considered the “supreme law of the land,” just like the Constitution. This places them on the same level as the Constitution. This also means that treaties take priority over laws that conflict with them.

In many treaties, Tribal Nations promised peace and their land. In return, the federal government usually promised protection, services, and reservation land. It usually also guaranteed Tribes their hunting and fishing rights. It is important to remember that treaties are rights granted by Tribal Nations to the federal government, not the other way around. This is because Tribal Nations have existed since time immemorial, long before the US was formed. It also means that Tribal Nations maintain “reserved rights” through their treaties. In other words, they keep any rights that were not expressly given up in the treaties.

Unfortunately, many treaties were signed under duress or through trickery. In other cases, Tribes signed treaties in good faith, but Congress refused to ratify the treaties, or to pass them into law. Many treaties have also been repeatedly broken by the United States. Despite all of these issues, treaties remain an important part of federal Indian law. Their power has been affirmed repeatedly through Supreme Court cases, executive orders, memorandums of understanding, and more.

None of Yosemite’s Traditionally Associated Tribes are “Treaty Tribes,” or Tribes that signed ratified treaties with the United States. Of the seven, however, ancestors of six of the Tribes signed treaties that were never ratified. The seventh, the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe, never signed a treaty at all.

For centuries, settlers have stolen objects of cultural significance and even human remains from Native communities and lands. The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, or NAGPRA, aims to address this critical and ongoing issue. It seeks to ensure all human remains and objects of cultural significance are treated with dignity and respect.

Under NAGPRA, all federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding are required to repatriate ancestral remains and objects of cultural significance to their descendants. The National Park Service (NPS) is one of several agencies bound by the Act. In this process, the NPS is required to consult with Tribes, Native Hawaiian Organizations, and lineal descendants to determine appropriate action.

Unfortunately, NAGPRA is not perfect. The process of repatriation is often very slow. As of 2023, over 96,000 human remains are still in institutional collections. Many individuals and communities are even forced to prove their connections to their own ancestors and culturally significant objects to have them returned.

Despite these challenges, NAGPRA remains a deeply important piece of legislation. Check out the National Park Service’s NAGPRA subject site to learn more. You can also read more about the NAGPRA work Yosemite is doing on our Tribal Archeology and Cultural Heritage page.