POSITION OF THE ______________________________ TRIBAL COUNCIL TO SUPPORT THE ELIMINATION, PHASE-OUT OR REDUCTION WITH THE AIM TO ELIMINATE TOXIC SUBSTANCES THAT ARE PERSISTENT AND BIOACCUMULATE IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND IN THE BODIES OF AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE PEOPLES

WHEREAS:

Section 1. The ______________________________ Tribal Council is the governing body and has full power and authority to act for the Tribe; and,

Section 2. The ______________________________ Tribal Council expresses the right and power to negotiate with the Federal Government and it's administrative authorities; and,

Section 3. It is the policy of the United States government in keeping with its trust responsibility to provide certain services and obligations of maintaining a policy of government-to-government relationship with federally recognized tribes; and,

Section 4. The ______________________________ Tribal Council preserves for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Tribal nation, rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws and Constitution of the United States to promote the welfare of our Tribal nation and preserve a safe and healthy environment; and,

Section 5. Research has demonstrated that American Indian and Alaska Native populations are at higher risk from certain substances that are toxic, persistent and bioaccumulate in the environment, the food web and in the human body; and,

Section 6. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has recognized health and environmental affects of certain substances that are toxic, persistent and bioaccumulate, including intentionally produced industrial chemicals such as PCBs and unintentional by-products, such as dioxins; and,

Section 7. United nations intergovernmental negotiations are taking place for an international legally binding treaty instrument for implementing international action on certain persistent organic pollutants, called POPs. These include pesticide POPs: adlrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene; industrial chemical POPs: hexachlorobenzene and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and POPs that are unintended byproducts: dioxins and furans. There is no longer any production or use in the United States of any of the above pesticide POPs; and,

Section 8. Dioxins and furans, as well as PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, continue to be generated in the United States as unintentional byproducts, and continue to be released to the environment in quantities that can contribute to harmful health and environmental impacts.

Section 9. Large quantities of PCBs continue to be used in the United States in older electrical transformers and other equipment. These sometimes break open and/or leak to the environment in quantities that can contribute to harmful health and environmental impacts.

Section 10. PCBs and other POPs are present in contaminated soils and sediments at many locations inside the United States. This poses special problems for nearby tribes such as the St. Regis Mohawk (PCB contaminated St. Lawrence River sediments); the Oneida and Menominee Tribes (PCB contaminated Green Bay and Fox River sediments); and various Alaska tribes who live near PCB contaminated former US military sites. POPs escape into the air from contaminated soils and sediments, and then return to earth and water at distant locations where they can then contribute to harmful health and environmental impacts.

Section 11. The United States government through its Department of State and EPA have participated in three of five Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee sessions with no consultation with American Indian and Alaska Native tribes or villages on these health and environmental impacts that disproportionately affect Indian peoples; and,

Section 12. On July 14, 1999, Madeline K. Albright, Secretary of State, United States Department of State, had a meeting with American Indian and Alaska native leaders and made a commitment to ensure the Department of State consults and works in good faith with Tribes in matters of foreign policy that impact Indians; and,

Section 13. Dioxins and PCBs are of particular concern to tribes in the United States and both are widely present as contaminants at dangerous levels in the fish and the other wildlife that American Indians and Alaska Natives eat. For example, 46 states have issued advisories against eating local fish because of dioxin contamination. The average American adult receives 300 to 500 times the daily "safe" dose of dioxin through diet, and breastfeeding infants receive 50 times that amount. Both dioxin and PCBs have been linked to serious health problems, including cancer, immune system disruption, and reproductive and development problems; and,

Section 14. The ______________________________ Tribal Council is concerned about the elevated impact and greater health-risk that dioxin and PCB contamination and other POPs contamination may have upon our Tribal nation. We are concerned that due to land-based and subsistence culture, Indian peoples have higher exposure rates and are at higher health risk as compared to other non-Native populations; and,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

Section 15. That ______________________________ Tribal Council takes a position to advise the United States in its negotiation in the Intergovernmental Global POPs Treaty to take real action to support treaty language that emphasizes reduction, pollution prevention and a gradual phase-out of dioxin-producing materials and technologies, with an ultimate aim of elimination. We also support treaty language to rapidly phase out all remaining uses of PCBs; to destroy PCBs stocks; and to cleanup soils and sediments contaminated by PCBs and other POPs by means that do not, themselves generate and/or release POPs to the environment or create other health or safety hazards; and,

Section16. That a letter be sent to the appropriate United States POPs treaty negotiating team of the State Department and the U.S. EPA on this position; and,

Section 17. This letter request to the United States POPs treaty negotiating team that all American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, village and health and environmental tribal organizations be consulted on this important issue that affects the healthy future of our Tribal nations.

ATTEST