2025
Comparably’s Best Company Outlook
Service
Indigenous Services
Working with Indigenous communities requires experience, thoughtful solutions, and deep respect for peoples’ cultures and heritage.
We Want to Hear From You
For questions or further information, please fill out the form below.
Carolyn Stewart
Tribal Relations Principal/Senior Tribal Liaison
Scott Phillips
Senior Cultural Resources Technical Director
Overview
SWCA builds and maintains deep, longstanding relationships with Indigenous communities as demonstrated in our long service history. Our clients include hundreds of Indigenous Tribal, Alaskan, and Hawaiian entities, representing a wide variety of endeavors completed throughout the U.S. for the benefit of the connected communities’ cultural, natural, and traditional resources.
At the same time, we serve to advance the practice of respectful relationship building between industry, non-indigenous government agencies, and potentially affected Indigenous communities and their governments or organizations. We help connect the diverse interests of Indigenous communities and commercial and public, enterprises, initiatives, and projects. Our approach underscores respectful work, collaboration, and exchange with Indigenous communities, reflecting our commitment to meaningful dialogue for the benefit of clients, agencies, and the Indigenous communities involved. SWCA is committed to leveraging our regional, national, and international expertise, comprehensive knowledge, and solemn respect for Indigenous communities to foster understanding and cooperation.
Our team has supported a wide variety projects for Indigenous communities and with Indigenous communities on behalf of industry clients, government agencies, and other organizations.
Indigenous Community Support
SWCA is a trusted partner of Alaskan, Hawaiian, and Native American governments and organizations. For more than 40 years, we have offered Indigenous community services that address the specific challenges faced by these communities such as climate change, wildfire risk, and the need for ecological and cultural resources restoration. We recognize that Indigenous cultures are inextricably linked to their ancestral lands—places that Indigenous peoples lived and traveled in the past as well as where they live today.
SWCA is unique in our ability to integrate cultural practices, traditions, and perspectives into cultural, natural, and environmental resources management strategies and their implementation.
Relevant Services
- Biology and Environmental Studies, Planning, and Permits
- Climate Resiliency
- Conservation/Preservation
- Cultural Resource Management
- Historic Preservation and Tribal Historic Preservation Office Support
- Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Studies for Funding and Permitting
- Land Management and Development
- Natural Resources Management
- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Support
- Transportation Planning
- Wastewater Treatment
- Watershed Management
- Wetland and Riparian Restoration
- Wildfire Planning
Indigenous Relations Support
SWCA assists clients in the public and private spheres with all aspects of Indigenous relations, including issue analysis, direct outreach, field resource identification, and resource protection strategies. Our efforts are centered on the knowledge and understanding of Indigenous community values, traditions, and cultures in a manner that enables of our clients to also meet project goals and the requirements of regulatory and permitting agencies.
Our Indigenous relations services extend comprehensively to the inclusion of cultural practices, traditions, and perspectives into the understanding of Indigenous relations. We offer services that aid in understanding the cultural context of communities, providing valuable insights for project planning and implementation, as well as ensuring that cultural heritage and knowledge is maintained for those who hold it within their traditions.
Relevant Services
- Consultation and Regulatory Process Support
- Cultural and Environmental Assessments
- Cultural Sensitivity Training
- Ethnography, Ethnology, and Ethnohistory
- Facilitation and Government-to-Government Consultation Coordination
- Indigenous Community Engagement Planning and Implementation
- Indigenous Culture and Heritage Studies and Preservation
- Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Consultation
- Indigenous Relations Plans and Guidance Development
- Traditional Cultural Place (TCP) Evaluation and Documentation
- Traditional Resource Field Survey and Monitoring Support
- Tribal Critical Issues Analyses
- Tribal Cultural Resources Specialist Contracting and Coordination
- Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) and Business Licensing Support
- Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Support
Meet the Experts
Tribal Relations Principal/Senior Tribal Liaison
Carolyn Stewart
Carolyn is an energy industry veteran with 45 years of renewable energy and consulting experience. Over the last 20 years, she has worked with hundreds of Native American communities on energy development and cultural resource preservation.
Senior Cultural Resources Technical Director
Scott Phillips
Scott is a Senior Technical Director who leads Cultural Resources Management, Regulatory Affairs, and Indigenous Government Relations across SWCA. He has developed his expertise and acumen since entering the field in 1990 and has provided leadership in these areas at SWCA since 2001.
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