Oral history interview with Janie Simms Hipp, 2022
Abstract
Janie Simms Hipp reflects on her career in agricultural law and policy, and on relations between Native Americans and the Obama administration, in which she served as senior advisor for tribal relations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and as director of USDA's Office of Tribal Relations. Hipp focuses on the importance of engagement and consultation with tribal governments, and outlines the challenges and issues that Native American farmers and ranchers faced during the years of the Obama presidency. She details major policies, efforts, and initiatives with which she was closely involved, including the Keepseagle v. Vilsack settlement, the White House Tribal Nations Conferences, the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching, and the increased representation of Native Americans on Farm Service Administration county committees. Also discussed are the importance of understanding the history of U.S. government relations with Native tribes, the distribution of attention to Native issues throughout the U.S. government, the role of listening and lived experience in effective policy design and implementation, and the farm crisis of the 1980s
Presidents--United States; Indians of North America--Government relations; Minority farmers--Services for--United States; Agriculture and state--United States; Agriculture--Economic aspect--United States; Hipp, Janie Simms, 1955-; Obama, Barack; White House Tribal Nations Conference; United States. Department of Agriculture
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
49 pages
Note (Biographical)
In the Obama administration, Janie Simms Hipp served as senior advisor for tribal relations to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and director of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Office of Tribal Relations. Hipp has also served a s national program leader of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at USDA, and as director of risk management education at the Risk Management Agency at USDA. Outside of government, Hipp served as an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas; and CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund. At the time of the interview, Hipp was general counsel at the Department of Agriculture
Note
Interviewed by Dov Weinryb Grohsgal on August 19, 2022. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Janie Simms Hipp, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023