City Wins Award for Engagement and Consultation with Tribal Nations

The City of Boulder extends its gratitude to Tribal Representatives for nominating the city for an American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA) for its consultation and engagement efforts with American Indian Tribal Nations, which the city received at the association's annual conference last week. The award honors organizations that have “demonstrated accomplishments and commitments above and beyond those required to meet laws and regulations pertaining to cultural resource management.”

“City staff who work with Tribal Representatives were deeply touched by the thoughtfulness Tribal Representatives put into their nomination that led to the city winning ACRA’s Industry Public Sector award,” said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, thanking Tribal Representatives who signed a nomination letter and those who wrote their own letters of support that helped the city win the award. “While this award is an honor, the true achievements are the meaningful relationships we have built with Tribal Nations and Tribal Representatives over the years.”

In an award nomination letter, co-developed by the Keystone Policy Center and Living Heritage Anthropology, Tribal Representatives recognized that the city “has been a respectful, adaptive partner who has invested time, energy and resources into making our requests happen.” Notable collaborative efforts between the city and Tribal Nations have included:

• Creating a collaborative concept plan with Arapaho and Cheyenne Tribal Representatives for the Fort Chambers – Poor Farm property, which has a community connection to the Sand Creek Massacre.
• Developing a new, collaborative Memorandum of Understanding with Tribal Nations, which has been discussed at several city-tribal consultations since 2019. 
• Co-creating an ethnographic-education report, which is still in development, to welcome Tribal Representatives to share their enduring cultural, traditional and historical connections to the Boulder Valley.  
• Collaborating to develop a community program to welcome Tribal Nations to share their perspectives, histories, cultures and traditions with the Boulder community. While heavy snow canceled the event, Tribal Nation Representatives and singers and dancers who were in Boulder before the snow fell still celebrated their traditions, cultures and histories with songs and dancing. 
• Renaming Settler’s Park to The Peoples’ Crossing – which has become an important symbol for the city’s ongoing collaboration with Tribal Nations – and helping the city to fulfill a key part of the city’s Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution.
• Removing harmful signs that included problematic and harmful imagery and narratives about Indigenous Peoples.  
• Maintaining ongoing dialogue and sustaining relationships through a city-Tribal Nation Working Group that meets quarterly.

“Since the signing of their Indigenous People’s Day resolution in 2016, the City of Boulder has demonstrated a sincere commitment to acknowledging and addressing the history of Indigenous removal and mistreatment in the Boulder area, incorporating Indigenous voices into city-wide education and management programs, and cultivating authentic partnerships between Tribal and City governments,” the ACRA award nomination letter said. “As Tribal Representatives of the Working Group and Tribal Consultation, we have worked collaboratively with the City of Boulder since 2019 and agree that Boulder is a model to other cities in their Tribal Consultation efforts.” 

City staff thank the Keystone Policy Center and Living Heritage Anthropology for their guidance in supporting the city’s tribal consultation efforts over the years. Additionally, the city recognizes the Human Relations Commission and community members for developing the Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution, which has been critical in helping the city build and strengthen relationships with Tribal Nations.

“As we look to the future, we remain focused on strengthening the relationships we have been fortunate to develop with Tribal Nations and look forward to more opportunities to collaborate and work together in the future,” Rivera-Vandermyde said.