**Remarks of**

**FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell**

**at the United South and Eastern Tribes Impact Week**

**February 3, 2004**

**Crystal City, VA**

[The Importance of Telecom in Indian Country - ITI Activities and
Outreach]{.underline}

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to join you for this
historic event.

Today, we recognize the importance of protecting sacred and cultural
resources. We also acknowledge the important opportunities that
telecommunications services can bring to Indian Country.
Telecommunications is a powerful tool that provides opportunities to
improve learning, rural health care, public safety, and the operations
of government. Throughout the FCC's visits to Indian Country, we have
seen how dedicated and resourceful Tribes have developed innovative
applications to address their specific needs.

Telecommunications also can be used to meet important homeland security
and public safety objectives, and to connect governments and
communities.

Last summer, while touring the Navajo and Hopi reservations, my staff
learned how the Tribes are working together, and with state officials,
to promote the interoperability of wireless public safety communications
systems. And recently, I personally had the pleasure of seeing how the
Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association has deployed
innovative wireless technologies to connect their tribal governments and
members through its virtual Tribal Digital Village.

Innovative telecommunications products and services appear almost daily
-- VoIP, digital TV, smart radio, and wireless applications just to name
a few. Indian Country must be a part of this technological revolution.
Information technology and access to telecommunications as a means of
economic empowerment is essential to the future growth and strengthening
of tribal life -- bringing significant benefits to Tribal financial,
social, political, healthcare and educational systems.

The FCC is committed to working with the Tribes to bring these services
to Indian Country. Through the [FCC's Indian Telecommunications
Initiatives (or "ITI"),](http://www.fcc.gov/indians) the FCC seeks to
foster understanding, cooperation and most importantly, trust. Working
together -- American Indians and tribal organizations, the
telecommunications industry and the FCC -- we can tackle the difficult
issue of increasing access to critical telecommunications services, and
improving the quality of life, in Indian Country. In the last year, we
have engaged in more consultation on FCC regulatory matters and spent
more time in Indian Country than ever before. I am pleased to say that
we are seeing the benefits of these efforts -- through greater Tribal
input and collaboration.

Over the last year, Commissioners and FCC staff have traveled from the
Alaska villages to the North Plains prairie, from the Southwest Canyons
and Mesas to the Plateaus of the Northwest. We have taken the FCC on the
road to Indian Country and we are listening and learning all along the
way.

[The Memorandum of Understanding]{.underline}

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that President George and I will
be signing in a few minutes marks a significant event in the history of
the FCC, and its growing relationship with the Tribes of this great
nation. In the seventy year history of the FCC, this is the first
agreement of its kind that the Commission has entered into with American
Indian Tribes.

The MoU was developed in the context of our government-to-government
relationship to achieve an important goal -- to protect sacred and
cultural tribal resources, while facilitating the deployment of wireless
and broadcast services to all Americans. Through this Memorandum of
Understanding we recognize the importance of the trust relationship we
share and collectively affirm that there [is strength in
unity]{.underline}. This guiding principle, which has served USET so
well since its inception in 1968, stands as an important lesson for the
Commission as well. Working together, through our mutually respectful
trust relationship, I remain confident we can and will achieve critical
objectives.

I want to thank Chairman George and Vice Chairman Tullis, and the
distinguished members of USET's Cultural and Heritage Committee, for
their leadership in this effort. I also want to thank USET Executive
Director Tim Martin for his tireless efforts to help make this agreement
a reality. In addition, I'd like to acknowledge my staff from the
Consumer & Governmental Affairs and Wireless Telecommunications Bureaus
for their ceaseless and hard work. I hope that these discussions and the
agreement we sign here today is just the beginning of a long and
fruitful relationship between the FCC and the member Tribes of USET.

[NHPA & NEPA Compliance---A Critical Issue for both the FCC and
USET]{.underline}

The Communications Act emphasizes the broad purposes behind the creation
of a federal agency to regulate communications: to ensure that everyone,
regardless of income or location, has access to basic and advanced
telecommunications services, which today are no longer a luxury, but a
necessity. In the context of wireless services, this necessarily means
the deployment of wireless infrastructure to support nationwide,
ubiquitous wireless communications. The FCC is committed to making this
nationwide system a reality in Indian Country as well.

At the same time, the FCC is responsible for implementing the provisions
of the [National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA)](http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/environment/), the seminal law for
protecting properties of religious and cultural importance to Tribes
listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic
Places, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the basic
national charter for protection of our environment. In recognition of
the importance of deploying communications services consistent with the
mandates of these Acts, I directed Commission staff to develop the
agency's first comprehensive strategic plan to improve our ability to
protect valuable historic and environmental resources, while at the same
time accelerating the process of deploying necessary communications
infrastructure. Although the Commission's statutory obligations had been
longstanding, I concluded that the expanding need for telecommunications
infrastructure required the Commission to take a more proactive approach
to these issues. Today, I am pleased to announce significant progress on
several key initiatives of that plan.

First, representatives of the FCC, the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation
Officers and several Tribes have met over the past year and a half to
create a draft Nationwide Programmatic Agreement. We have focused on
streamlining the review process for communications facilities in a
manner satisfactory to all of the stakeholders. We initiated a
rulemaking seeking comment on a draft Nationwide Programmatic Agreement
aimed at improving compliance with the review process while at the same
time advancing and preserving the goal of the NHPA to protect historic
properties, including historic properties to which federally recognized
Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations attach religious and
cultural significance. In this process, the Commission took affirmative
steps to stimulate and invite consultation with Tribes to ensure that
their concerns were a part of the decision-making process. This
rulemaking is in its final stages and has benefited greatly from the
consultation and comment of Tribes and tribal organizations, including
USET.

Second, today, the Commission is announcing the launch of a newly
developed internet-based [Tower Construction Notification
System](http://wireless.fcc.gov/outreach/notification/index.html). The
system is aimed at providing an efficient and effective means by which
the tower construction industry can inform tribal and other cultural
preservation representatives of proposed tower construction sites. The
Tower Construction Notification System provides Tribes an opportunity to
identify particular geographic areas of cultural sensitivity in a secure
environment. By receiving early notification of proposed construction,
situations where towers are constructed prior to completion of the
Section 106 process should be avoided, ensuring protection of religious
and culturally significant tribal historic properties. We emphasize to
users of the Tower Construction Notification System that the system is a
tool to facilitate Section 106 communications. However, I must stress
that the Tower Construction Notification System is not to be used in
place of Section 106 consultation. The FCC will consult on a
government-to-government basis with federally-recognized Tribes, and
will consult directly with any Tribes or National Historic Officers upon
learning of such a request.

Tribes will be able to access the proposed tower construction system as
of today, February 3. During the following 30 days, you will be able to
update or change your contact information and your geographic areas of
interest before the FCC begins to send notifications. During the first
week of March, 2004, the Commission will send out its first electronic
and regular mail notifications for any proposed tower construction
notifications that were received since February 3. Only State Historic
Preservation Officers, Tribes and NHOs, as authorized system users, will
have access to the information relating to proposed tower construction
sites. Once again, USET played a leadership role in the development of
this system.

Today, we begin a comprehensive outreach campaign to educate industry
and all 562 federally recognized Tribes about the tower notification
system. We enlist your support in this effort and encourage you to use
the system fully so that we can all benefit.

Third and perhaps most importantly, today we sign the historic
Memorandum of Understanding I mentioned at the outset. This signing is
the culmination of our joint work over the past year. It commits our two
organizations to continue to work to finalize a set of Best Practices
that will serve as guidance to the FCC, industry, and Tribes on how to
work together in the Section 106 communications facilities siting
process.

These best practices are being developed in the truest sense of the
government-to-government relationship -- across the table from each
other, shirt sleeves rolled up to tackle difficult issues in a mutually
respectful manner. A willingness to listen and a spirit of compromise
are the foundations of these consultative discussions. As a result, I
have every confidence that the best practices we agree upon will offer
well-crafted and unique solutions that address the concerns of the
Tribes, the telecommunication Industry and the Commission.

I offer my highest commendation to USET for its outstanding leadership
and your dedication and commitment to the process. It is indeed my honor
and my privilege to sign this document on behalf of the FCC. You have my
firm and unyielding commitment to devote the staff and the resources of
the Agency to completing this important task.

I'm honored to be with you and honored to be your friend. Thank you.