 Great. Thank you so much, Mike. And hello to everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's program on how to protect against risks to tribal cultural heritage. This program is made possible with the generous support of the Department of the Interior. My name is Jessica Unger, and I'm the Emergency Programs Coordinator at the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. FAIC undertakes and underwrites programs and initiatives to advance the conservation profession nationally and internationally in all its facets and applies the expertise of the profession in addressing global artistic, cultural, and historic preservation priorities. FAIC promotes the preservation of cultural heritage as a means towards a deeper understanding of our shared humanity, the need to express ourselves through creative achievement in the arts, humanities, and sciences. We honor the history and integrity of these achievements through the preservation of cultural materials for future generations. Today's program is the second in a series of three webinars that will discuss the risks that can potentially affect cultural resources of tribes. Cultural resources are defined as the aspects of a cultural system that are valued by or are significantly representative of a culture or that contain significant information about a culture. A cultural resource may be a tangible entity or a cultural practice. Tangible cultural resources are characterized as structures, archaeological resources, cultural landscapes, museum collections, archival documents and photographs, sacred sites, and ethnographic resources. As you might expect, this series will primarily address tangible cultural resources and how to protect them. Yesterday we discussed the principles of risk assessment and how to size up the risk to collections. You can view a recording of that program by following the link that I'm about to share here in the comment box. Today our program will focus on collaborating with emergency professionals. For those in charge of preserving and protecting cultural heritage, the protocols and language of emergency professionals might seem incredibly foreign. However, it is essential to begin building bridges with the emergency professionals who will come to your aid during an event. Collaboration will help ensure that you have full access to the resources available and that your collection priorities are clearly conveyed. On Thursday, we will learn about how to relay all of the information regarding risk assessment and collaboration into a preparedness plan. All of these programs are designed with unique needs of tribes in mind. For today's program on collaboration, we're fortunate to be joined by Patrick Vacha of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Patrick began his federal service in April of 2003 with FEMA at the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Northern Virginia. As a member of the Mount Weather Police Department, his roles included physical security, investigations, emergency management and intelligence, including time on the National Joint Terrorism Task Force. Patrick was initially hired as a physical security inspector for the Indian Affairs Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, OHSES, in June of 2007 to implement the National Infrastructure Protection Program, NIPP, for Indian Affairs. In 2008, he was selected as the Indian Affairs Emergency Management Coordinator, and during a realignment of the emergency management and continuity functions within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he became the Deputy Chief for the BIA Division of Emergency Management where he currently serves. Patrick, we're thrilled to have you with us here today. I'm going to go ahead and move the slide deck over so that your presentation is ready. So whenever you feel comfortable, go ahead. Great. Thank you, Jessica, very much. Really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Thanks to you and the folks at FAIC and continue this partnership we've had since, I guess it's been 2012 when we did our first risk evaluation planning program at one of our Tribal Assistance Coordination Group National Workshops. So good morning, good afternoon, everybody. We're going to start as we roll through the slide deck here with a brief overview of the BIA Emergency Management Program as a whole, then do a brief overview of the Tribal Assistance Coordination Group, which is really how BIA and federal partners engage tribes during emergency incidents and events, particularly when they're not rising to the level of the Stafford Act Declaration or significant FEMA involvement. And then we'll get into a deeper, some of the specifics of how emergency managers and Tribal Cultural Historic Preservation folks can work together for planning to protect cultural and historic artifacts for tribes, which as we know are some of the most valuable things that they possess. So we'll go ahead and get started. Again, I'm Patrick Vachis, Head Caesar. Unfortunately, couldn't join us today. He is the Chief of the Division of Emergency Management in Washington, D.C., and I am the Deputy located down here in Nashville, Tennessee. Here's our mission. We know that with 567 federally recognized tribes, emergency management isn't always a very strong priority, unfortunately, because of funding and numerous other things. So we try to be as efficient as we can to help tribes with planning, response, recovery, technical assistance, anything that we can bring to the table to help tribes be better prepared for emergencies and disasters. Our responsibilities, policy at the national level and which also filters down to our regions for preparedness planning response. We also do continuity of operations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters. We represent the coordinating interagency emergency management activities related to tribal affairs across the board. And we coordinate not only with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, but we also support the Bureau of Indian Education, which has, I believe, the count as 164 schools nationwide. We are co-located within the Office of Justice Services within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As Jessica mentioned in my bio, it has not always been that way previously. The emergency management function was in the Office of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, which is a policy piece. So by moving over into Bureau of Indian Affairs proper, it allowed us to be able to not just spend funds on personnel, travel, those types of things, but also operational dollars to be able to provide response activities. And we are a headquarters team that is pre-deployed to the field. And here's where everybody's at. As I mentioned, cities in Washington, D.C. I'm in Nashville. Josh Allen is in our western region in Phoenix, Arizona. Susan King is in our northwest region in Portland. And Jerry Keener is in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Some of the things we've been working on really quickly, the Presidential Policy Directive 8 Refresh as part of DHS FEMA and kind of the whole of emergency management across the board, as are most other federal departments and agencies engaged in, specifically the Tribal Coordination Support and so I'll talk about that briefly. We had a four-corner summit out west, United South of the Eastern Tribes, Impact Week, some recent, very large-scale exercises, our continuity exercises in Washington, D.C. and then Alaska Shield a couple of years ago. Deployments, the first ever during Northwest Wildfires, Bureau of Indian Affairs Emergency Management was supporting the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Wildland Fire, which was a very unique situation providing all hazards emergency management support to the wildland fire suppression activities that were going on. Josh Allen was at the Navajo Nation for almost six weeks during the Gold King Mine incident and we constantly provide technical assistance across the board, whether it's to tribes or other federal, state, NGO partners. So this is Sid's slide deck and this is the only picture in here that I actually do remember what this was and we thought this was rather clever that if someone calls and you're on the boat, all you have to do is say, hey, I can't talk right now, I'm in a meeting, so I do remember that one. So I mentioned the Tribal Assistance Coordination Group, an ultra-quick history post-Katrina Indian Health Service where Sid was the chief at the moment, or excuse me, at the time, who is now with us and then the Bureau of Indian Affairs individual that preceded me realized that there was a lot of things going on down the gulf, a lot of folks helping tribes but BIA and IHS Indian Health Service weren't really talking. So they started that dialogue at the headquarters level to try to help make the coordination better at the field and regional level. At some point they realized, hey, FEMA's got a role to play here, so maybe we'll ask FEMA to become involved and they had had a new tribal liaison with an enhanced role in FEMA headquarters and that was really the nexus of the TACG. So starting with three folks, having a couple of meetings has turned into our monthly calls, which have anywhere from 50 to 100 people participating and we just had our 10th annual Tribal Assistance Coordination Group workshop back in November. So we're very pleased with participation and how we've grown over the years. So I mentioned partners from all levels of government, tribal, federal, state, county, local, non-governmental organizations, volunteer organizations, active and disaster, so across the board what folks can bring to the table to help a tribe during a specific incident. We are identified as a new coordinating structure in the National Response Framework and as part of the Tribal Coordination Support Annex and Emergency Support Function 15. So our goal is to provide a focus point of coordination or one stop shop for tribes being impacted by emergencies and disasters. Tribal Emergency Managers, a lot of times, are multi-hatted individuals. They might be the fire chief, they might be the police chief, they might be the environmental person. So having to make four or five phone calls for them when something's happening is difficult as well as having to receive four or five phone calls the other direction, asking what help they need or what help can be provided. And so we try to connect folks as a single unit to deliver resources and capabilities to meet unmet needs as quickly and efficiently as we can. As outlined in the NRF, the TACG is led by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Emergency Management Program. And so we engage initially, obviously, within resources within BIA, the Department of the Interior, and then to the rest of the interagency and the rest of the appropriate partners. That's the PNU Mobile. So our national workshop I mentioned was back in November in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of the highlights of the program was we did a risk evaluation and planning program for tribal cultural institutions. This is the second one we've done at a TACG workshop and we did a very similar program last year in October, I believe it was, at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. So stressing the importance of planning for risks, trying to mitigate risks to cultural and historic artifacts, and then working with as many people as necessary, including emergency management and first responders, to make sure that those plans not only make sense, but can be carried out in the resources that are necessary and available already when they need to. How do tribes request assistance? We always start with an initial phone call or an e-mail followed by a written request from tribal leadership. That initial request, and you've seen a little more detail here when we talk about the scoping call, we want to make sure we've unfortunately had situations in the past and it's been well in the past now, which is a good thing as things have smoothed out, but we would start to engage with someone, a representative from the tribe, who was working on the incident and working hard and working diligently, and for whatever reason, as we started to talk to tribal leadership, that wasn't the individual that they felt was best suited to represent the tribe in this capacity. So the reason we ask for some sort of acknowledgement from either the tribal leader or tribal council is to make sure that we're not seen as meddling in tribal business when it's not needed or wanted. So once we get that initial request, we do have a brief scoping call with appropriate partners to kind of assess the situation, see how things are going, and then a lot of times that may be expanded into a larger call to talk with more partners and work through the incident as it progresses. The available assistance or rapid needs assessment team, especially in response, and we've had a few requests for recovery, specific individuals depending on the incident so that a determination can be made as to what resources are actually needed to respond to that particular type of event. A lot of times it is made up of BIA folks, Indian Health Service folks, folks from BIA's Division of Environmental and Cultural Resource Management or the Department of Interior's Office of Environmental Policy Compliments. That would be particularly if we're talking with some cultural issues or cultural items or anywhere else that we need, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA, all the partners for that specific event to get the best ground truth, eyes-on assessment of what's needed and what help can be provided. Coordination, this is probably the biggest. We do a lot of coordination and a lot of times it's really making sure that all the appropriate partners that can or want to help are actually informed of the situation. We've had some on several occasions, hey, I'm trying to get a hold of these folks or we're trying to find out who to talk to but we don't know who to engage, we've got help. So that initial coordination with appropriate agencies, again, across the board, federal, state, whatever the case may be, is very, very important, including sometimes, maybe the state and the tribe don't have the best relationship but the state has some resources. Can we help coordinate that on behalf of the tribe at the tribe's request to make sure that if those things are there and available that they're provided? Communication support, we do have multiple communications vehicles throughout the country, fairly robust command post-type platforms that are available during incidents. Law enforcement support obviously is where we're located in the Office of Justice Services. That was a big support element during the Northwest Wildfires with evacuations, preparedness and planning assistance and then response and recovery assistance, as much or as little as we can provide, we hope to provide. We talked about the Rapidities Assessment Team, usually three to five folks. You see some of the disciplines there, public health engineering and, again, natural and cultural historical folks on a regular basis. Almost every incident seems to have a public health component to it in one way, shape or form, so that's why Indian Health Services is one of our most important partners. Capability-based requests. This has evolved very nicely over time, over the last few years. We get requests for things like food or water and we say, okay, we need water and then there'd be this long pause and so now we've got to go through, do you need potable water or non-potable water? Do you need water buffaloes, five-gallon containers, individual bottles, those types of things? So now we try to be very specific to say, hey, what is the capability that you need? What do you actually need done? Then let's take that, go to these other partners and see if they have the ability to be able to provide that capability. So instead of asking, let's example here, hey, we need a bulldozer and a grater, it's easier to say, hey, we need to repair 200 feet of gravel road acting as a dam. Okay, well, depending on the agency or the organization that's helping, they might have an equipment that's closer that can do that, that's not necessarily a bulldozer or a grater, but still be able to meet the need based on what the actual requirement is as opposed to what you think the individual parts and pieces are. Emergency support function 11, we have a very good relationship which is how this partnership got started actually with FAIC and Jessica through the Department of Interest Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance. We frequently provide folks with taskings from ESF 11 through FEMA for which the Office of Voluntary Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance is the lead agency for ESF 11 on the natural cultural historic side. We provided everything from architectural historians to historical architects to other environmental type folks as well as in some cases some emergency management type individuals as well. This is probably our biggest connection during a Stafford type event with respect to natural cultural historic items. So, artifacts and collections and kind of how an emergency manager thinks. The REP program has been very successful for us with respect to taking a deeper look at those things, how important they are, how complicated protecting some of those things can be and resources that are required can sometimes be significant. So, prioritization. Obviously, we want to protect everything. We want to save everything but if that number is going to be low what are the most important things? What are the most important items in a specific building? Whatever the case may be but some type of priority so that if it's really significant a flooding event in particular something that can be seen a little bit down the road as opposed to something like a tornado which is instantaneous for the most part. Can we start to say, hey, let's take care of this first and then we'll work through the rest of the items or the artifacts or the collections after that. And then, are there any special instruction or method? This was a big eye-opener for me when we were at University of Nebraska Omaha. The tribal member who was talking about an artifact, I believe it was a 500-plus-year-old medicine bag that nobody, on their current reservation there's no elder or spiritual person that is able to touch or move that item. And so it has to be a very, very specific person from a very specific line of folks that are educated and go through the list of requirements there and nobody else can move it. And if somebody else tries to move it very bad things are more than likely going to happen to that individual. If the option is can we save it? Do we let it burn up in the fire? Well, we don't want to let it burn up, but you really can't move it. And one of the things they came up with, well, hey, there are some folks in a neighboring tribe that might be able to do that. Maybe we can engage them and see if there's someone more expeditious that could get there if it really did have to be moved in a hurry, those types of things. So those are things I guarantee you that don't come up with most other museums and collections. They say we got to move it, get it out of the way, and we got to protect it. So some of the very unique things with tribes and tribal communities. And who has been involved in the planning process and or needs to be involved? Planning, planning, planning is critical. You know, if it goes back to the best, not written down, it never really happened. But trying to build into those plans so that everybody knows what is supposed to take place, how it's supposed to take place and then everybody's in agreement. That way there are as few surprises as you can possibly have when an incident occurs. You're never going to be able to predict anything with the type of incident, how long the incident is or anything like that. But the more planning that you do on the front side, it's a lot easier to do to actually execute that plan if you had to. And including as many people as you can. I tell people when we go out and provide technical assistance to tribes for emergency management planning in general, all hazards, type things. Bring everybody, bring anybody that you think might be there. They'll pair themselves down if they really don't have a role with respect to the planning process individually. But a lot of folks get missed, public works. You know, so, and again on the all hazards side, cultural and historic folks sometimes aren't part of the conversation. It seems like environmental always makes it to the table. But are there, you know, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer or someone else that needs to be part of that planning to even at the larger level to make sure that everybody's aware that, hey, this is going to be part of the process as we move through the potential for response. So then limitations for the protection of collections. Obviously lives are going to go first. Property is going to come second. But who will establish that priority for allocating those resources? And when does that work? How does that work? How do those resources immediately accessible? A lot of times they're not if you're drawing from that third item. You know, if they're going to come from mutual aid or come from an outside jurisdiction, whether it's another tribe, whether it's county, state, a federal partner. Where's it going to come from? How fast can it get there? And if it's a larger incident, are there two of them someplace? Obviously I'm talking best case scenario where everybody works together on everything. You can plan as best you can and try to engage as many folks as possible. And a lot of times we run into situations where they don't provide help or they're not interested, but a lot of times folks haven't been asked and that goes both directions. So again, engage as many partners as you possibly can and make sure everybody understands the importance of the protection of these artifacts, collections, historical items. And these, that's very, very well known, but folks coming from the outside, whether they be federal partners or otherwise, a lot of times they don't understand how important those things are to a tribe, their culture and their heritage. And then kind of leading into that, ensuring responders have an understanding of those unique needs and handling of those type of collections. You know, depending on the neighboring jurisdiction, some of the things, can you think of, you know, is it possible to do an awareness training or provide some type of little pocket guide or other document that says, hey, you know, if we've got folks coming in from the county or the state or from another tribe, wherever the case may be, is there a quick checklist for lack of a better word, a quick guide that says, hey, do this and this and this, but for this, we need someone very specific to work with that individual item or that collection or that artifact. And then, you know, doing that as much as you can, if that's possible, but then also, can we take a tribal responder or just an individual, a cultural historic individual and serve as a cultural liaison to help guide the outside responders. That's been in practice for quite a while with Wildland Fire. When Wildland Fire, especially, a wildland fire, but when you've got four service folks, they'll have folks that will kind of lead the dozer line, if you will, to make sure that, you know, when these dozers are going through cutting lines to help try to prevent wildfires, that they're just not tearing up the sacred sites, whatever the case may be. So, a lot of times, that one individual can provide a lot of benefit working with folks that just don't have a knowledge or awareness of how important those things are, and you can provide them fairly quickly, and most folks are very receptive to understanding that. So, some of our short-term initiatives with respect to FAIC and cultural awareness, cultural resource awareness, our continued outreach to the Museum of Cultural Stewards as part of our program and our preparedness operation, making sure that our rapid needs assessment team plans include someone who has some cultural training and experience. Those folks aren't always easy to find, so we're trying to put together a little roster of folks that could be ready on fairly quick order in a moment to notice, so we'll be able to provide assistance as part of that rapid needs assessment team. And our continued financial support of Museum and Cultural Stewards, management training, which is what this is part of. And these are some of our pipe dreams, everybody's got them. We do not have a disaster relief program in the FEMA so there's not a big pot of money sitting out there waiting for a disaster to happen. If that assistance is provided it comes from another program so roads or whatever the case may be depending on the event and the incident, if there are funds available. A revolving fund for a uniform level assistance and then a structure to be able to do that. This has been talked about several times at the department level also but hasn't, as of yet gained a whole lot of very specific traction. And I believe yes, so there's since contact information as well as mine, those are our cell numbers. Please feel free those are 24-7, we know that comes with the territory so you know, we'd rather get a call in the middle of the night that something's happening than find out that something happened the next day that we think we may have been able to help with. So please feel free to give us a shout, send us an email and then I will turn it back over to Jessica to see if there are any questions comments or anything else we can provide. Back to Jessica. Thursday, we're skipping tomorrow jumping to Thursday. Again at 1pm we'll be joined by Alexandra Allert who actually took part in the rep workshops that Patrick had mentioned this past fall. Alex is a collections care professional and a conservator who is going to talk about how to best relay all of this information to preparedness plans for tribes. So again, thank you to Patrick, thank you to Mike at Learning Times for all of your technical assistance and I look forward to the next webinar in the series. Thanks for attending.