PLAZA - Pemina Yellow Bird says she knew she had to help preserve her culture when she heard that two skulls from an American Indian grave on the Missouri River were picked up and taken to someone's home.

Her involvement in that issue has spanned nearly 20 years. She is now a cultural preservation consultant for the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Yellow Bird, of Plaza, was appointed to the board of the State Historical Society of North Dakota in 1985. After years of hard work, she said, April 16 was a day of victory for tribes along the Missouri River.

That was the date that the tribes, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal and state agencies signed an agreement on cultural resource protection and preservation.

"We're now sharing the stewardship of these sacred and cultural resources. It's really, in my mind, a tremendous victory, and the results of many, many years of hard work on the part of many, many people," Yellow Bird said.

The agreement, which was developed to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act, sets a process for management and protection of cultural resources along the Missouri River.

"I just think it's so tremendously exciting that at last we're addressing the issues and tribes are playing an integral role in these matters so we're not sitting on the sidelines," Yellow Bird said. "We're not being kept out of the loop - we are at the table."

Yellow Bird grew up in Parshall, a community near the Missouri River on the Fort Berthold Reservation. She worked earlier to get a law passed that protected Indian burials.

"The law that was on the book at the time protected burials for the sake of science. It was written by and for archaeologists, but we got in there and changed it," she said. "Our late attorney, Kip Quale, was a tremendous player in that effort."

Quale was an attorney for the Three Affiliated Tribes.

The recent agreement signed by the tribes and agencies also kicked off a program to educate the public about the problems of looting, artifact collecting and vandalizing, Yellow Bird said.

"The lake level going low creates a very difficult problem for tribes. We're so interested in protecting these sacred and cultural resources (and) that makes it more difficult for us," she said.

"Signs will be installed at each of the access points to Lake Sakakawea reminding people that picking up or digging for artifacts is a felony, and letting them know what the consequences will be," Yellow Bird said. "It's also a felony to rob Native American burials."

A 1-800 hotline to report looters also is being established. The hotline goes to the Corps of Engineers, which notifies the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Yellow Bird said many people do not understand what sites and artifacts mean to tribes.

"To us, they are sacred," she said. "It would be like somebody walking into a church and just helping themselves to whatever they found there, and then turn around and take those items home and put them on display, or worse - sell them.

"People need to know if they are caught and convicted they will be committing a felony," she said.

Yellow Bird said the agreement with the corps came out of respect for tribal ancestors.

"It took 17 years to get the corps to the point where they would seriously talk to us, and it took another three years to actually write it and negotiate it," she said. "I think that's a real strong point - that this is a feather in the hats of all the tribal representatives that they just hung in there and would not give up."