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FEBRUARY 5, 2001

Centering on a frequent criticism lodged against her predecessor, Gale Norton wants to change the way the Department of Interior does business by seeking more state and local input.

Confirmed by a 75-24 vote in the Senate last week, Norton made one of her first television appearances on Saturday, fielding questions on her past and her future as the first woman Secretary of Interior. But viewers looking for clear-cut answers on the environment and public lands management may not have found them easily.

It may be just too early to tell what kind of decisions Norton may make at the Interior. Some of the policies which have been placed before Norton in recent weeks, such as President Clinton's roadless forest initiative and enforcement of certain environmental laws would in fact be more adequately addressed by the heads of other federal departments and agencies.

One policy on which she is clear, however, is building consensus. Employing a buzz-word familiar to many in Indian Country, Norton is promising consultation at all levels before making decisions.

"We are going to change the way in which we do business on those kinds of issues," said Norton when asked about Department of Agriculture's controversial forest plan. "Those actions came from Washington without consultation with people across the country."

"But we're going to be working with people throughout the areas we're affected, with the states, with local governments, so that we can have a decision-making process that really involves people," said Norton.

A states' rights advocate, consultation is a practice which Norton has long defended, insisting that state, local, and tribal governments be involved in decisions which directly impact them. Consultation is also an area in which she says her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, wasn't particularly effective, saying "he cut states, local governments, local people out of the process."

Some in Indian Country might agree with Norton's assessment. Last year, tribal leaders and environmental activists criticized Bruce Babbitt and the National Park Service for their handling of consultation with tribes concerned with the killing of bison by Montana state officials.

"It was much more insultation than consultation," said Faye Brown of the three meetings the Park Service arranged with tribes. Brown is the campaign manager of Honor the Earth, an environmental organization headed by Winona LaDuke which unsuccessfully sought a face-to-face consultation with Babbitt before the government finalized its Yellowstone National Park bison management plan.

Others, though, might not feel the same about Babbitt. After a huge outcry from tribal leaders and the public, Babbitt he a Bureau of Land Management decision last month which denied a gold mine operation in California on land considered sacred by the Quechan Nation.

Babbitt also finalized last month a controversial decision to restore flows to the Trinity River to benefit the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe of California. Mandated by law, the Interior consulted directly with the Hoopa Valley Tribe on the issue.

But at the same time she has criticized Babbitt, Norton has avoided directly addressing these two decisions and a number of others raised by Senators concerned with her past. Norton has instead responded in moderate tones, professing lack of knowledge on them but promising repeatedly to work with public officials in learning more about them.

Such delicate politics didn't go unnoticed by Mark Shields. Norton appeared this weekend on Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields, a CNN program which Shields co-hosts.

"I thought Gale Norton in her presentation was measured, she was reasonable, she was moderate," said Shields on his program. "You can understand, in spite of that controversy swirling about her, why she won Senate confirmation."

Relevant Links:
Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields- www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/evans.novak/index.html
The Department of Interior - www.doi.gov
The Bureau of Indian Affairs - www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html

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