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regulatory functions. This result not only ends tribal 

 ability to manage resources according to their own goals 

 and objectives, but also places trust resource protection 

 in the hands of State agencies, whose hostility to tribal 

 natural resource rights is endemic and real. To date, 

 tribes have sought to ensure funding continuity by placing 

 resource protection funds in the "base"; this strategy is 

 only effective to the extent that Congress's budgetary 

 process follows the same procedures as are currently in 

 place. 



Recommendation No. 3 . The United States must explicitly 

 recognize, in the recommended trust legislation, that 

 minimally adequate funding of tribal trust protection/ 

 management programs is an integral element of the federal 

 government's trust responsibility and is not to be 

 considered a matter of discretionary policy. 



As should be clear from the above comments on the state of 

 tribal resource protection efforts, tribal infrastructure 

 has developed in the area of fisheries and wildlife 

 science and management. It does no good for the Tribes to 

 have sophisticated management practices if they cannot 

 obtain the ears of others whose decisions equally affect 

 the status of tribal trust natural resources. The Tribes 

 are currently voices calling in the dark; no one is 

 required to hear what is being said. What is needed is 

 more than a requirement for consultation with Tribes — that 

 often means in practice that Tribes are advised by other 

 entities of intended action and their comments and/or 

 objections are not heeded. Tribes need to have accorded 

 to them the same respect as other governments with 

 responsibility for their lands and resources, and that 

 includes mandated inclusion in any body established or 

 subject to federal law concerning natural resources 

 issues. 



Recommendation No. 4 . Federal legislation should include 

 mandatory inclusion of tribal representatives in any and 

 all decision-making entities established or funded by the 

 United States whose actions directly affect the viability 

 of tribal fish, game, land and water resources. 



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