Native American Tribes Communication Plan. The Lessee must develop a publicly available NATCP that describes the strategies that the Lessee intends to use for communicating with federally recognized Tribes, and that should outline specific methods for engaging with and disseminating information to federally recognized Tribes with cultural and/or historical ties to the lease area. The NATCP must include the contact information for an individual retained by the Lessee as its primary point of contact with federally recognized Tribes (i.e., a Tribal Liaison). The NATCP should include detailed information and protocols for regular engagement with federally recognized Tribes including, but not limited to, the types of engagement activities (e.g., one-on-one meetings, group meetings, open houses, open information sharing meetings, etc.); the frequency of proposed engagements/meetings (e.g., monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually, etc.); meeting locations and/or virtual platforms; and contact information (e.g., telephone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, etc.). The Lessee must make the NATCP available to the Lessor and the federally recognized Tribes upon request. The Lessee must provide a draft NATCP to BOEM and federally recognized Tribes for review and comment, and hold a meeting with federally recognized Tribes to discuss the NATCP, within 120 days of lease execution. The Lessee must invite federally recognized Tribes with cultural and historical ties to the lease area to participate in the development of the NATCP. If a federally recognized Tribe wishes to participate, the Lessee should request that the Tribe designate a Tribal Representative from each Tribe to serve as the Tribe’s primary point of contact for communicating with the Lessee. If a federally recognized Tribe does not wish to participate in the development of the NATCP, the Lessee is no longer required to include them in NATCP communications. If a Tribe does not respond to outreach from the Lessee, the Lessee will continue to invite the Tribe to participate in NATCP engagement opportunities until the Tribe provides a written response to the Lessee or Lessor.
Native American Tribes Communication Plan. A revised NATCP requirement from the one included in previous commercial leases to require the Lessee to work with BOEM and the Gulf of Mexico to identify Tribes with cultural and/or historical ties to the Lease Areas and invite those Tribes to participate in the development of the NATCP. The NATCP would also include protocols for unanticipated discovery of any potential pre-contact archaeological resource(s).
