On Monday at the University of Utah, a South Dakota ecology professor urged them to seize the opportunity and reclaim their legacy as North America's original environmental stewards.

"Native people are the right people in the right place at the right time," said Jim Garrett, who specializes in bison preservation studies at Si Tanka College and is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

"The current political climate doesn't put much value on these kinds of things, or the environment as a whole. So how can native people not step up to the plate?"

Garrett, along with tribal biologists and conservationists, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials gathered at the U.'s Research Park for the inaugural Tribal Endangered Species Conference. The two-day event, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, was convened to solidify what has been a scattered approach to conservation on the nation's tribal lands.

"We've been wanting to do this for a long time," said Steve Torbit, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Tribal Lands Program. "There are so many tribes across the country doing good work, but we needed a way to facilitate this work so everybody can learn from each other."

Garrett and others pointed out the vital roles American Indians already have played in reviving the nation's most endangered species. Native people had a vital hand in reviving the bison herds after they were hunted and massacred to the brink of extinction by American hunters, settlers and soldiers. And in this decade, the Nez Perce tribe has been an important cog in the reintroduction of the wolf to central Idaho.

John Antonio, American Indian liaison for the Fish and Wildlife Service's southwest region, says there are numerous reasons why tribal lands are well-suited for recovering endangered species and habitat.

"The majority of tribal lands are undeveloped and can provide safe haven," said Antonio, a member of the Laguna tribe. "In New Mexico and Arizona alone there are 5 million acres of pristine, almost wilderness-type land. And access to those lands is controlled, limiting human activity. So it's a great opportunity."

But there also are challenges. Torbit notes that funding is a perpetual problem because there is no mechanism for the federal government to appropriate dedicated Endangered Species Act funds to the tribes, as it does to the states. Any federal funding for tribal conservation projects must come via line-item appropriations.

"And when funds do become available," he said, "it's not enough."

But Torbit also believes that a little creativity could at least partially address the money problem. Endangered Species Act funding could possibly be had, he suggested, by tying it into development projects that are eligible for Bureau of Indian Affairs, or Fish and Wildlife Service stipends.

Whatever the method, Garrett believes the nation's native peoples have a "moral responsibility" to take an active role in conserving the most threatened animal and plant species.

"These species helped us survive for thousands of years," he said. "Now it's our turn to help them, by giving of ourselves."