Harvard Profs Help Town Talk With Tribe

Two professors from the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) led an effort that resulted in a potentially precedent-setting agreement last month between a Native American tribe in northern Idaho and government agencies from the region.

Since last March, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy Joseph P. Kalt and Assistant Professor of Public Policy Keith G. Allred have met with and instructed a group of four representatives from the Nez Perce tribe and four from the North Central Idaho Jurisdictional Alliance, a collection of 23 local Idaho districts and cities.

This Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) drew up a “Memorandum of Understanding” that stresses the desire to settle jurisdictional conflicts between the Nez Perce tribe and the local governments without resorting to litigation. It also encourages collaboration between the two institutions in any projects that could be accomplished jointly.

“We do see it as precedent-setting,” Allred said. “It goes further than previous plans.”

Rick E. Laam, a city administrator in Orofino, Idaho, who sits on the IWG, said the agreement has “enormous” significance.

“This is a commitment to the future. It’s not short-term,” he said. “Even before it was signed, it meant something to us because we both had a hand in framing it.”

Allred said about three-quarters of the residents on the Nez Perce reservation are not members of the tribe, which has resulted in jurisdictional clashes between tribal and city officials.

In one incident, he said, a tribal police officer pulled over a city official on the road. But the official said he did not acknowledge the officer’s jurisdiction, and he drove away. The incident led to a high-speed automobile chase.

According to Allred, tensions escalated even as Philip E. Batt, who was governor of Idaho from 1995 until 1998, asked city and tribal officials to resolve their differences before they led to bloodshed.

Allred, a fifth-generation Idahoan, said he and Kalt, who is from Arizona, might have had an easier time understanding the situation because of their backgrounds. Kalt is also co-founder of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

According to Laam, the Memorandum of Understanding, which intentionally makes no reference to race, is also designed to help the groups resolve difficulties through a specific negotiation protocol. According to that system, the IWG will continue to convene at least once per month and will establish “technical working groups” focusing on specific problems.

The protocol could be applied to other conflicts. Because many reservations include both native and non-native residents, Allred said, “these are very common conflicts, and we think this is a pretty generalizable procedure for resolving them.”

The IWG itself has roots in the KSG—it was established after an executive education workshop for city and tribal officials held in Cambridge in January 2001. At that workshop, Allred and Kalt used case studies from other conflicts between Native American communities and local governments.

“These case studies about what worked well and what didn’t work in Indian country were particularly helpful,” Allred said. “Vague memoranda of understanding always fell apart.”

The technical working groups, which will focus on such issues as economic development and law enforcement, are likely to be a strength of the Memorandum of Understanding, he said.

“These Indian and non-Indian communities really rise and fall together economically and socially,” he said.

Samuel N. Penney, chair of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said the memorandum will be especially helpful with coordination of law enforcement and public safety, as the residents of rural north central Idaho expect an influx of visitors over the next few years to celebrate the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s expedition.

Penney also said that other Native American tribes across the country have learned of the memorandum and might look to apply the framework to their own conflicts.

Although all parties hail the agreement as a step forward, they also acknowledge that challenges lie ahead.

“The real work is about to begin,” said Laam, the Orofino city administrator. “I suspect we’re going to have a lot of disagreements—professionally, though, and that’s progress in and of itself.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.