NCAI Webinar Series on Tribal Disaster Declarations Pilot Guidance, Session 2

The National Congress of American Indians will host a three-part webinar series on Tribal disaster preparedness efforts. During the webinar series, Tribal emergency management experts will walk Tribal leaders and staff through the 2017 Tribal Declarations Pilot Guidance (pdf download), answer questions, and highlight how tribal nations can access emergency disaster resources.

In 2013, Congress passed legislation enabling federally recognized tribes to directly request a Presidential emergency or major disaster declaration. In 2017, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released the Tribal Declarations Pilot Guidance to clarify the tribal declaration process. However, many Tribal nations have been unable to utilize the direct tribal declaration process to access life-saving federal resources after a natural disaster strikes Indian Country.

The goal of the webinar series is to help Tribal leaders and staff become familiar with the tribal declarations process, spotlight pitfalls to avoid, and identify available resources. The first two webinars will focus on the tribal declarations pilot guidance overall, and the third webinar will focus on special considerations for tribal nations in Alaska going through the tribal declarations process. The worst time to figure out the FEMA tribal declarations process is after a disaster strikes your tribal nation. NCAI hopes that this webinar series will help prepare tribal nations for future disasters and streamline federal resources to Indian Country.