Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the National Congress of American Indian’s (NCAI) mid-year meeting in Reno, Nevada. The NCAI meeting was a warm and familiar place for me, as I recently left a position as NCAI’s Director of Economic Development to assume my current position as Director of USDA’s Office of Tribal Relations.

While I was in Nevada, I wanted to be certain to see Secretary Vilsack’s StrikeForce Initiative in action, as I was aware that Nevada’s USDA leaders had selected Nevada’s Indian reservations for their StrikeForce focus. What a day I had on June 26! It was tremendous to experience the mutual vigor among tribal leaders, USDA leaders, and their respective teams.

After a listening session with tribal leaders in Reno, we headed out to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, approaching the famous desert lake from the west. We emerged from rolling hills near the tiny town of Sutcliffe where USDA Rural Development has worked with the tribe to install a water treatment plant to provide clean water to the community.