Comment submitted by Katherine Krueger, Staff Attorney, Quileute Indian Tribal, Quileute Natural Resources

Tribal rights are not cut from a homogenous cloth. We have executive orders, wars, peacetime, treaties with on-reservation rights only, and treaties with off-reservation rights. The Stevens Treaties of W. Washington are the last type and have significant environmental responsibilities where they reserved rights off-reservation for hunting, fishing, gathering, and management of the resources. You don't provide for any consultation when these rights are affected, only for trust and reservation lands. This is a serious defect and needs adjusting. I commented on this, and in fact EPA response to tribal comments covered it. But these regulations don't. See attachments--mine first, and then see page 4 comment on off-reservation rights. We need this to be explicit, not just inferred, and at the mercy of staff interpretation as time goes on. Please make reserved rights off-reservation part of your explicit consultation coverage. K. Krueger, staff attorney, Quileute Natural Resources.