American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION Indian Country in the United States contains substantial commercial forest resources. The sixteen million forested acres on 214 reservations in twenty-three states generated over $465 million in revenue and supported forty thousand jobs in 1991, primarily through timber harvesting. Management of these resources is performed by three types of organizations: on- and off-reservation United States Department of the Interior-Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) forestry programs; joint BIA and tribal forestry programs that share responsibilities; and completely tribal forestry programs. Joint BIA-tribal programs are enabled by the “Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act of 1975,” P.L. 93-638, through which tribes can contract with the BIA to do part or all of the forest management work. So-called 638 contracts are constrained, however, at the same funding level as a solely BIA program and, further, by BIA rules and regulations. Totally tribal programs, permitted under the “Indian Self-Determination Act Amendments of 1988,” P.L. 100-472, may appear to be an attractive alternative to BIA or joint programs because self governance allows a tribe to design a program it chooses, pursue funding independent of ordinary BIA budgeting procedures, and seek waivers from regulations that are inappropriate. A tribe seeking greater control over its forest resources may ask, Is self governance a better way to do forest resource management?