Monday, December 26, 2011

Good (I think) On-Line Instruction re. Tribal Consultation

For all those who keep asking about training in consultation with American Indian tribes (2 or 3 in the last year or so): the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture has just come out with a nice (I think) on-line class that's available free to the public (You do have to register, but it doesn't cost anything).  It can be accessed at http://www.tribal.golearnportal.org/ .  Lots of good information, and it strikes me as quite a balanced, accurate presentation with plenty of good advice.

2 comments:

Thomas F King said...

I'm advised that this on-line class was actually developed by an interagency group including NRCS, Forest Service, NPS, ACHP, and maybe even BLM (hard to believe that, though), and that it's been out for a couple of years. A well-kept secret from the unwashed public.

Thomas F King said...

Sarah Bridges of NRCS has asked that I post the following detailed correction regarding responsibility for the on-line tribal consultation class. Mea culpa for jumping to the conclusion that NRCS had produced the class on its own.
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Thank you Tom! I just opened your Blog and must agree with the comment received on the GoLearn consultation course. The course development was a true interagency collaborative effort--Val, Monique (now with USGS), and Bill from the ACHP and Eugenia Tyner-Dawson of DOJ lead the effort and worked closely with, NPS (Dr. Pat Parker Tribal Program Director and colleagues), FS (also Monique for several years) FHWA, OPM, BLM (tribal office), BIA (tribal office) Commerce, USACE (tribal office) and others to create the concept and the course. NRCS (Edith Morigeau--tribal office director and me) was a late-comer to the interagency group. When Dr. Janie Hipp joined USDA as the Director of the Office of Tribal Relations, she and her staff worked on and sponsored further development and distribution of the course.
I am thankful and honored to have had an opportunity to contribute to content and some funding--NRCS also adopted the course as a mandatory module of our internal employee training.
Thank you for your kind words but please give the credit to the others, lead by the ACHP and DOJ, for the concept and hard development and distribution work.
Happy New Year!
Sarah
Sarah T. Bridges
Federal Preservation Officer/
National Cultural Resources Specialist
Ecological Sciences Division
USDA/NRCS
PO Box 2890
Washington, DC 20013
202 720-4912--phone
202 720-1814--fax
202 595-4905--blackberry ph.
sarah.bridges@usda.gov