Socio-Cultural

Federal-Tribal Trust Responsibilities

This section summarizes government-to-government trust responsibilities.

The federal government has a unique legal and political relationship with tribes, and a special relationship with Alaska Native tribal entities.

This trust responsibility is provided for through legal instruments such as the U.S. constitution, judicial statutes, and executive orders issued by the U.S. President.

The importance of this unique relationship is that federal agencies must work with the federally recognized tribes of Bristol Bay, on a government-to-government level.

For centuries, they have lived and used their lands extensively for subsistence and traditional purposes.

Tribes have expressed increasing uncertainty over potentially significant environmental impacts, health and safety risks, and effects to the subsistence resources.