(ANNAPOLIS, MD)—Today, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Principals’ Staff Committee moved to mark the completion of their directive from the Chesapeake Executive Council on including tribes as a formal and enduring partner. In September, ICC conveyed that conversations with the Principals’ Staff Committee have demonstrated that the Bay Program is not respecting tribal sovereignty and is unwilling to give Tribal Nations a seat at the decision making table. In response, Choose Clean Water Coalition Director Kristin Reilly issued the following statement:
“It is incredibly disappointing for the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Principals’ Staff Committee to determine that they have completed the Executive Council’s charge on the inclusion of Tribal Nations within the Chesapeake Bay Program leadership. The charge from the Executive Council is titled, ‘Tribes as a formal and enduring partner in the Chesapeake Bay Program.’ At the end of this year long process, not only are Tribal Nations not formal and enduring partners, they have rightfully walked away from the Program completely.
“This should not mark the end of the Executive Council’s charge, but serve as an opportunity for the Bay Program to educate themselves on Tribal sovereignty and change its approach to engagement with Tribal Nations. It is the Bay Program’s responsibility to build the leadership-level structure the charge called for and rebuild the Trust that has been broken with Tribal Nations.
“The Bay Program and the larger clean water community needs to recommit to a shared goal of engaging Tribal Nations as formal and enduring partners in our work for clean water and healthy communities throughout the Chesapeake Bay region. Tribal Nations have cared for these lands and waters since long before there was a Bay Program, and there is no healthy Chesapeake without them.”
The Choose Clean Water Coalition is an organization that harnesses the collective power of more than 325 local, state, regional and national groups to advocate for clean rivers and streams in all communities in the Chesapeake region.
