Indigenous youths have been enlisted in the Southwest, including New Mexico, to help conserve natural and cultural resources on tribal lands as part of the Indian Youth Service Corps.

Authorized in 2019, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched the program over the summer with a goal of offering employment and training opportunities to Native American and Alaska Native youths.

According to Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, it's designed for young people seeking a path to good-paying jobs while working in a program that also tackles the climate crisis.

"To do projects in and around national parks that mostly have relevancy around the experience of tribes," said Shafroth. "And so it could be stewardship of the land by the tribes in the area that could specially connect tribal youths to their homelands in a lot of ways."

The Youth Corps' projects last from four to 12 weeks, and complement work of the nonprofit Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps in New Mexico and Arizona - which has included seed saving and trail maintenance, as well as contact tracing on reservations during the pandemic.

Eligible participants can be ages 16 to 30, and the majority of any corps must be Native American.

In New Mexico, youths have been recruited to work at White Sands National Park to assist with deferred trail, fence and landscape maintenance. They're also documenting archeological sites, and assisting with removal of invasive trees along the trails and public roads.

Shafroth said participants receive a mix of work experience, basic and life skills, education, training and mentoring.

"Some of this work is about teaching these young people skills - to operate a chainsaw, restore historic buildings, to do restoration work on sensitive habitat, things like that," said Shafroth. "But it's also about building leadership skills."

To establish the corps, the National Park Foundation has invested $1 million in the program - while the Interior Department has allocated nearly $3 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and a South Dakota organization is working to help establish leadership skills for Indigenous youth.

Data compiled by the Center for Native American Youth show young people within this population face many obstacles, from high school graduation rates below the national average to being over represented in foster care.

John Richard, youth and family specialist with the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation on the Pine Ridge Reservation, said it underscores how Indigenous youth are still reeling from trauma experienced by past generations, and added their programs focus on providing structure and healing.

"Really, what we want to do is fill in those roles, in how to express yourself in healthy ways, and also being able to have a support system and that kind of structure, where it's going to guide them and flourish into their future lives," he said.

Richard added on the Pine Ridge Reservation, there are few resources for prevention and awareness for behavioral health. Among Thunder Valley's youth outreach programs is an initiative where elementary-age children are connected with high schoolers. Those mentorships emphasize improving self-identify through sports and learning more about the Lakota language.

There's also the WWHY Girl Society program, which prepares girls for life challenges and traditional Lakota womanhood ceremonies.

Lynn Cuny, Thunder Valley's deputy director, adds it serves as a safe space, as Pine Ridge continues to deal with high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.

"It's overwhelming for us as adults, so imagine being a youth, feeling that and seeing that every day. So, we've even done self-defense classes with our young Girl Society," she said.

Thunder Valley leaders say staffing shortages and transportation barriers sometimes prevent them from expanding certain programs, like a summer leadership academy. However, being able to bring in teens and young adults as mentors has allowed elements of their outreach work to thrive.

Alaska tribes are urging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to keep protections in place for more than 28 million acres they say are critical to their way of life.

The BLM is expected to release a draft environmental impact statement next month on the effects of opening the acreage up to mining and extraction. Known as D-1 lands, large parcels across the state were originally protected from development under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act more than 50 years ago.

Eugene Paul, tribal Chief of Holy Cross and chairman of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said these lands are important for their food sources.

"Other places have these big stores, Costco and stuff, that they buy a great amount of goods and stuff, but we don't choose that," he said. "We choose what we were taught to do and to live off our land, and it means a lot for us to take what we need and then gather what we need to put our families through the winter."

Seventy-eight tribes wrote a letter to the BLM asking to keep safeguards for D-1 lands in place, noting Alaska already is feeling the impacts of climate change and development could further erode tribes' way of life. For nearly two decades, the agency has submitted resource plans recommending lifting protections for D-1 lands.

Frank Katchatag, president of the village of Unalakleet and vice chair of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said tribes are fighting for their lands.

"Salmon cannot fight for itself. The caribou and the moose cannot fight for itself," he said. "We are trying very hard to protect those species so that we may continue the life that we live and pass on to our children and grandchildren."

Katchatag said that if the lands are damaged and the rivers polluted, his home will never be the same.

"I look forward to meeting more with the Alaska BLM director and I truly hope that the Secretary of Interior continues to meet with us," he said, "because we're not going to give up."


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


get more stories like this via email

By Jeniece Roman for WSHU Public Radio.
Broadcast version by Edwin J. Viera for Connecticut News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has made progress on its farm in North Stonington. In partnership with UConn, tribal members are learning about sustainability and self-sufficiency.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation had long owned an expanse of densely wooded land in North Stonington, close to its reservation. But eight years ago, tribal member Jeremy Whipple - then a public works employee at the tribe - had a vision for what the land could be.

"They allowed me to come up here and start clearing the land cause it was all overgrown so I brought it up to what it is now," Whipple said.

Now that parcel of land is Meechooôk Farm.

Equipped with greenhouses that house hydroponic lettuce, tomatoes, and fruit year-round, the land also supports livestock including cows. The transformation was made possible through support from The University of Connecticut and the Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program.

Whipple is now the director of the Agricultural Department for the Tribe. He manages the farm along with seven other employees. Right now they are working to add more greenhouses on site.

Each greenhouse on the farm is equipped with long rows of white containers. Seeds are placed in small squares of dirt that will grow into bundles. Water is distributed through an irrigation system from an 1100-gallon water tank. Bees are then brought into the greenhouse to pollinate the plants. It allows for a harvest year-round.

While the crew manages the farm, UConn provides training, as well as food safety classes and supplies. A majority of the food harvested goes to a food assistance program for tribal members, the rest is sold. During the growing season, tribal members receive a box of vegetables every two weeks.

"Right now we have 180 members that are signed up for the program and the grant reimburses the farm, you know, $70 a box we give out. The USDA actually compensates us for feeding the community healthy food," Whipple said.

UConn Extension also helped to set up a youth engagement group to provide agricultural training and science programming. Whipple said the project will strengthen the tribal community and help establish self-sufficiency.

"We're trying to be sustainable and you know you can't be sovereign without food," Whipple said.

The education goes beyond to also teach members that struggle with health issues like diabetes about nutrition. Whipple hopes the project will encourage their membership to grow gardens in their own yards to have sustainability within their households.

"So we're going to train the community. It's community-based. So we're trying to get the membership and everybody on the same page on growing and bringing back our traditional roots for gardening and our culture," Whipple said.

The USDA recently funded the project for an additional four years thanks to its success. Whipple hopes to expand the farm and the agricultural products they can grow. He said the tribe will also apply for grants to add a meat processing facility and event space for classes.


Jeniece Roman wrote this article for WSHU Public Radio.


get more stories like this via email