Office of Tribal Relations to Celebrate First Year in Operation

USDA's Office of Tribal Relations will celebrate its first year in operation in November, according to Indian Country Today.  Last year, the USDA "elevated Native American programs to the Office of the Secretary and made the Office of Tribal Relations responsible for government-to-government relations between USDA and tribal governments."

Janie Simms Hipp, the director of the Office of Tribal Relations and senior advisor to Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, "said the department is working with other offices throughout the USDA and federal government to coordinate services and offer a more effective tribal consultation process.  Re-drafting consultation practices and policies and offering training and support to senior managers in the 17 agencies of the USDA is helping to streamline information sharing and target which programs might best meet a tribe's need."

Hipp is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation.  She is an experienced attorney with an LL.M. in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas.  She started her legal career in Oklahoma during the 1980s farm financial crisis and has also served as an administrative law judge for the Cherokee Nation.

To read the Indian Country Times story, click here.

Posted: 10/28/2010