Column: Retired Navy chief serves as tribal liaison at Army Corps

Friday, July 22, 2011  

"The Oglala, Crow Creek, Yankton, Flandreau Santee, Cheyenne River, Sisseton Wahpeton and the Standing Rock Sioux. The Ponca, Omaha, Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. The Chippewa Cree and the Winnebago. The Blackfeet Nation.

These tribal names conjure images of people of the land who roamed, hunted and fished the rivers, prairies and forests in a more primal, and perhaps less complicated, time. These are those who constitute the lineage of Native Americans pressed onto reservations by earlier generations of, primarily, European immigrants. Today part of that which comprises their present tribal lands is served by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"I consider it an honor to work with and be of service to the kin of the original inhabitants of this continent," says Joel Ames, retired Navy Chief and, himself, an Osage descendent. Now he serves as Tribal Liaison from the Corps' Omaha District. And work he does, with no little travel, as the total land mass of Indian reservations in his area of responsibility comprise nearly the size of the entirety of the states of New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, combined.

Within a matter of hours, his span of work may range from responding to tribal needs during times of natural disaster, to bombing range cleanup issues, shoreline erosion protection or seeking solutions to drought problems. But his chores don't stop there. Regularly, he is called to prepare Congressional testimonies, deal with Water and Treaty Rights and address Presidential Permit Applications related to the keystone XL pipeline and its potential impact on the tribes."

Get the Story:
Tommy Clarkson: Former Navy Chief Now Works with Tribes (Blackanthem Military News 7/21)