An interview with EPIC tribal mitigation fellow, Mariah Black Bird

EPIC is delighted to have Mariah Black Bird  with us for a year-long tribal legal fellowship. Mariah graduated from Arizona State University College of Law with her JD and a certificate in Indian Law. She is working to identify ways federal and tribal policies can better support tribes’ opportunity to lead ecological restoration projects--and have those projects serve as economic assets by making sure they can be used as offsets under federal programs like wetland mitigation banking.

What made you to want to study law?

I wanted to be at the table where important Tribal negotiations and decisions are being made. Dakota Access Pipeline protests led to my decision to pursue a law degree. There were so many different issues I did not understand at that time. It made me think about my ancestors and how they must’ve felt signing treaties. A law degree provides me the opportunity to protect and strengthen tribes and their sovereignty.

You’ve been spending the last few months learning about all the ways tribes can provide offsets or compensatory mitigation for impacts to wetlands, streams and habitat. What is one thing you have learned about how tribes engage in mitigation banking?

Tribes have different motives in establishing a mitigation bank – there are so many co-benefits for them if they do.  It is more than ecological restoration, it is revenue generation, land reclamation, water and natural resource protection and a new way to pursue tribal sovereignty. That is very fascinating to me.

What would you say to tribes that are interested in pursuing mitigation banking? Where should they get started?

If there is a lot of development on the reservation or off the reservation mitigation banking is probably an opportunity, either for the tribe on its own or in partnership with another organization with expertise in the work required to set one up. Setting up a bank gets complicated fast - tribal land tenure status and fractionation, cultural value alignment and costs of establishment are all important considerations.

Most fun part of your job?

The most fun part of my job has been learning a whole new area of environmental law, in addition to melding it with Federal Indian policy. And my work is in a proactive headspace. It is not often that lawyers for Indian Country get that opportunity and I am blessed to do so. It is also fun to work with such a great team, EPIC is consistently doing exciting and innovative things.

Tell me about something that has surprised you in your research on tribal mitigation.

It is surprising how many different areas of Federal Indian policy mitigation banking touches and how the underlying premise of mitigation banking (i.e., long-standing ecological restoration) has been in existence and practiced by tribes since their beginning on turtle island (i.e., time immemorial). We are working on this, because, fundamentally, policies and regulations around mitigation don’t really treat tribes as well-precedented sovereign nations with the right to self-governance nor do they accommodate tribal law and unique issues for tribes like easement requirements. That all needs to change.