This story has been updated. Read the full article here.
FAIRBANKS – Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will appear at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Friday to announce a new direction in working with tribes.
The secretarial order, in the last months of the Obama administration, directs federal land managers to work with tribes on every front.
The order covers the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation.
Jewell is scheduled to speak to the convention on Friday afternoon.
Land managers must identify opportunities to work with tribes and make them partners in managing lands and waterways, under the order announced Friday.
[More coverage from the Alaska Federation of Natives convention]
The directive does not make tribes co-managers, which is a more formal relationship with a specific legal meaning. Rather, it requires federal managers to consult with tribes and figure out new ways to make Native people partners in the management and maintenance of federal lands.
The order will remain in effect after President Obama and his team leave office, unless a future secretary rescinds it, according to the Department of the Interior.
Under the measure, land managers must look to tribes for help in managing fish and wildlife, cultural sites, plant collection and public information. Tribes could be asked to help maintain trails, run youth education programs or demolish old buildings under the order.
Already in Alaska, the Fish and Wildlife Service works with the Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission on when to allow salmon fishing.
The directive covers all tribes, not just those in Alaska.