Energy chief promises a new deal for Indians

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson yesterday introduced a revised policy that calls for his agency to give new respect to the nation's Indian tribes and treat them as sovereign governments.

Tribal leaders immediately called on Richardson, who was in Seattle to present the revised policy, to make sure it is as good on the ground as it is on paper.

The policy requires the department to consult with tribes before taking action that would affect them, to comply with the law to better protect tribal resources and to uphold treaty rights.

He said his department has not always understood tribes and tribal rights. "They didn't know how to deal with tribal governments," Richardson told tribal leaders at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

Tribal leaders praised the policy statement, but said they have to see it in action on their reservations where their people live.

"We still eat the fish. We still go to the river. We still harvest the game," said Carla Higheagle of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee.

She and Russell Jim of the Yakama Tribe challenged Richardson to apply the new policy to the Energy Department's Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

"Indians have good reason to be skeptical of high-minded words," said Jim, noting disputes in the past over treaty language.

He pointed out that "the greatest concentration of radioactive and hazardous waste in the Western Hemisphere is on Yakama-ceded land at DOE's Hanford site."

A year ago, the Yakama Tribe proposed an agreement to the Energy Department concerning Hanford and protecting resources and treaty rights, said Jim, the Yakama's manager of environmental restoration and waste management. But Energy Department officials expressed concerns that the pact could create new obligations.

"It is difficult to see how enforceable obligations, derived from a treaty signed 145 years ago, can be considered new," Jim said. "So the gulf remains between words and action."

Richardson promised Jim action, saying he will send a team to meet with Yakama representatives. "I'll send our best negotiators to see how we can bridge the gap," he told Jim.

Richardson said his team would focus on the government-to-government relations between the Energy Department and the tribe, funding for cleaning up Hanford and issues surrounding the Hanford Reach on the Columbia River. President Clinton recently declared the 51-mile stretch on the Columbia a national monument.

Indian tribes weren't the only group Richardson was trying to mollify yesterday. He also held a closed-door meeting with Asian American leaders.

He acknowledged that there have been concerns in America's Asian community about racial profiling by the Energy Department. Those concerns stem from the prosecution of Wen Ho Lee, a researcher at the department's Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Lee was singled out in an investigation of espionage at Los Alamos, fired and jailed for nine months. Ultimately, federal prosecutors dropped all but one of 59 charges against him, and no evidence surfaced that he passed nuclear secrets to anyone.

Richardson said he does not believe that Lee was a victim of racial profiling. He has held similar meetings in New York and California with Asian Americans, an important voting block next week in what may be the closest presidential election in 40 years.

P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattle-pi.com