11 minutes
Consultation is a duty, and it is led What government-to-government consultation requires of a state agency, what it is not, who at DHS leads it, and what an ordinary staff member is actually responsible for.
What you’ll be able to do Describe what consultation with a Tribal government requires in state practice, and state plainly what your own part is and where it stops. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is wrong here, and what should happen next? Document a next step for Consultation is a duty, and it is led: Write the sentence you would send to the DHS office that leads tribal relations for one project you are on: what the project is, what decision is still open, and when it closes. What the duty actually asks of an agency In state administration, consultation is a specific thing with a specific shape. Minnesota law directs each named agency, including the Department of Human Services, to build Tribal consultation policies in consultation with Minnesota Tribal governments, to keep those policies current, and to designate a Tribal liaison who can meet directly and regularly with the commissioner. The duty runs to the governing body of each individual Nation, and the law says plainly that coordinating with a body that has representation from several Nations is encouraged but does not satisfy it.
The law also addresses timing. Agencies consult with each Nation at least annually, and as often as matters with Tribal implications require. On legislative and fiscal matters, consultation is meant to happen early enough for a Nation's priorities to shape what the agency proposes, rather than after the proposal is written. Agencies are directed to consider what they hear in their decisions, with the goal of reaching solutions that work for both governments.
None of that is a single staff member's job, and reading about it here does not make it yours. At DHS this work is led by the Office of Indian Policy and the offices that handle tribal relations and consultation. Your part is smaller and still important: notice that a matter may have Tribal implications, say so in writing while the decision is open, and hand it to the people who lead it. Doing that early, and doing it accurately, is most of what the rest of this module teaches.
Five things people call consultation Sending a notice Telling a Nation what has been decided. Often necessary, sometimes required, and not consultation. If the only thing a Nation can do with your message is read it, you have notified.
Opening a public comment period A public process open to everyone. A Tribal government may take part, and that participation does not replace the government-to-government process. Two things can be true at once: the comment period was fair, and consultation did not happen.
Talking with Tribal program staff Working conversations between program people are ordinary and often useful. They are not consultation with a Tribal government, and it is not fair to treat a program employee's comments as though they bind their Nation.
Briefing a body that several Nations sit on Minnesota law encourages coordination with bodies such as the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council or the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, and states directly that this does not satisfy an agency's duty to consult individual Tribal governments on matters with Tribal implications.
Consultation A government-to-government process between the agency and the governing body of a Nation, on a matter with Tribal implications, early enough to shape the outcome, with what is heard carried into the decision and the result recorded. At DHS it is led by the Office of Indian Policy and the offices that handle tribal relations.
Your part, in five lines Notice early. The moment a project could reach a Nation's lands, members, programs, funding, data or authority, write that down.
Put it where the decision is documented, in the project record, not only in a hallway conversation.
Route it to the DHS office that leads tribal relations, with what the project is, what is still open and when it closes.
Do not open contact with a Tribal government yourself, and do not ask a colleague to stand in for a Nation.
Hold the timeline open while the question is answered, and tell your own leadership that is why.
I sent the notice, typed consulted into the project file and moved on. Someone more senior pointed out that what I had really recorded was a claim that something happened when it had not. Correcting the file turned out to be more useful than the notice ever was.
Composite state-agency staff perspective, illustrative Keep the words consultation and engaged honest What you can change You control the accuracy of those two words in every record your project leaves behind.
What to watch for Do not let a project file say consultation occurred because a message went out. A false record travels further than the message did, and it blocks the real process later.
Your next step Check one project record this month for the word consultation and make it describe exactly what happened, at what level of government, and when.
A private reflection, for you alone and never collected: who could be helped, burdened, excluded or misunderstood by the way this project has recorded its engagement so far, and whose expertise is missing from the decision as it currently stands?
Carry this forward Minnesota law directs agencies to build Tribal consultation policies in consultation with Tribal governments, to consult the governing body of each Nation on matters with Tribal implications, and to carry what they hear into the decision itself.
Coordinating with a body that represents several Nations is encouraged and does not satisfy the duty. Each Nation is its own government and is consulted on matters that affect it.
A notice is not input, input is not consultation, and a public comment period is not consultation. Consultation is government to government, and at DHS it is led by the Office of Indian Policy and the offices that handle tribal relations.
Each agency designates a Tribal liaison as the principal point of contact, and state law directs staff whose work is likely to include matters with Tribal implications to complete Tribal-state relations training. This voluntary module is not that training.
A scenario about a project team that sends a notice and records it as consultation, an accordion separating five things people call consultation, and a knowledge check on whose duty it is.
Write the sentence you would send to the DHS office that leads tribal relations for one project you are on: what the project is, what decision is still open, and when it closes.
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Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice Explore why Tribal sovereignty calls for a government-to-government approach; defer Tribal-specific interpretation, engagement, and decisions to the Office of Indian Affairs and DHS offices that handle Tribal matters.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
