PUBLIC STATEMENT: July 1 Principal Staff Committee Promises Progress toward a Meaningful Tribal Partnership in the Chesapeake Bay Program

Dated: June 30, 2026

Contact: Melissa Ann Ehrenreich, Indigenous Conservation Council, mae@indigenous-chesapeake.org, 202-412-7942

More than 100 studies from around the world agree that Indigenous Knowledge enhances biodiversity, reforestation, fisheries health, and climate benefits. A recent study found that expanding tenure and Indigenous stewardship generated measurable results in just four years. The Indigenous Conservation Council (ICC), formed by the leadership of the only federally recognized tribes in EPA's Region 3, has spent the last several years championing the benefits of formal tribal partnerships to meet the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goals with the intention to become a signatory of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Today, the Principal Staff Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership met to vote on its recommendations to formally engage Tribal Nations in the Chesapeake Bay Program. With a renewed commitment to put pen to paper, this a critical opportunity to enhance one of the world’s largest restoration initiatives currently lacking formal tribal representation and inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge.

Background:

On December 2, 2025 signatories of the Bay Agreement unanimously approved Chesapeake Executive Council's directive, Tribes as a Formal and Enduring Partner in the Chesapeake Bay Program to address these disparities in the Partnership. Praising Tribal Nations on the dais for their much needed role to meet the Partnership's goals, the Signatories directed EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program to kick off a Tribal Working Group in 2026 to co-develop recommendations with Tribal Nations and Signatories representatives by July 1, 2026. The Tribal Working Group met only twice.

In March 2026, the Sea Grant Law & Policy Journal published a law article documenting the successful partnerships Tribal Nations have created in the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, and in California with federal and state partners. The article, "Returning to Indigenous Knowledge: Coastal Preservation Success Stories in Tribal-Federal-State Partnerships"  was co-written by two rising legal scholars, Lauren Wiederkehr during her summer law clerkship with Chesapeake Legal Alliance and Connor Tupponce who is an Upper Mattaponi tribal citizen. They described legal pathways Tribal Nations elsewhere had taken and opportunities for Tribal Nations to become full partners in one of the largest restoration initiatives in the world in the Chesapeake Bay.

Responses to the PSC Vote:

"Federally recognized tribes come in good faith to be seated as equal and meaningful partners of the Chesapeake Bay Program. We are still waiting,"  said Chief Frank Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe and Vice-Chair of the ICC. "We appreciate the closed door assurances from representatives of Signatories of the Bay Agreement that the pledge made by their leadership last December was not empty. With today’s vote, our Sovereign Nations look forward to restarting a working group under the leadership of Secretary Bulova from the Commonwealth of Virginia to co-develop a formal document for the Chesapeake Executive Council’s approval that will lay out details to deliver on promises made." 

"Tribal Nations don't come empty handed to the table. We bring Indigenous Knowledge that is delivering conservation and restoration results in record time all around the world," said Chief Anne Richardson of the Rappahannock Tribe and Chair of the ICC. "Next year will mark the 350th anniversary of the Middle Plantation Treaty of 1677 that was among the first treaties in what we now call the United States of America to recognize our inherent tribal sovereignty and reserved rights. It is imperative that tribal sovereignty and Indigenous Knowledge are formally recognized in the Partnership as all signatories agreed to do so in the revised 2025 Bay Agreement. The US federal government must also uphold its legally mandated federal trust responsibilities to fund tribal capacity."

"There is no question that Tribal Nations and their Indigenous Knowledge create value for coastal watershed partnerships where they are formally recognized. And it is also no secret that Tribal Nations in the past didn't get to these tables with funding to do so just by asking nicely,” said Melissa Ann Ehrenreich, Executive Director of the ICC. “We are heartened by Secretary Bulova's commitment delivered to us on behalf of all Signatories that we will work amicably together with our Tribal Nation members to make this much needed shift in the Chesapeake Bay for the benefit of all. The proof will be in the pudding." 

About the Indigenous Conservation Council:

The Indigenous Conservation Council of the Chesapeake Bay was formed by the leadership of seven federally recognized tribes in what is now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 2023, the ICC serves as an intertribal organization recognized under tribal laws with a mission to build the capacity of Tribal Nations to rematriate and care for their lands in a manner that reinforces sovereignty and self-determination. Our vision is that Tribal Nations in the Chesapeake region are leading rematriation efforts of ancestral landscapes in ways that support the care, repair, and Indigenous connections needed to protect cultural heritage for future generations.  Our Tribal Nation members currently includes seven federally recognized tribes, and the only federally recognized tribes in EPA’s Region 3: Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern Region, Monancan Indian Nation, Nansemond Indian Nation, Pamunkey Indian Tribe, Rappahannock Tribe, and the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe.