Encouraging Tribal Youth to Become Future Leaders in Resource Management

Photo credit: Joseph Sanchez

Serra J. Hoagland, Laguna Pueblo Northern Arizona University, PhD Candidate

CIF AGM September 16, 2015

Tha’wa’eh Thanks!

Photo credit: Joseph Sanchez

Challenges and barriers

Understanding educational disparities and historical trauma

Investment opportunity

More Native students are going into natural resource programs

Building the pipeline

From tiny tots to PhD’s:

recommendations for recruitment

Current programs

Native Youth programs and value of

Integrative university programs

Challenges and barriers

Understanding educational disparities and historical trauma

Investment opportunity

More Native students are going into natural resource programs

Building the pipeline

From tiny tots to PhD’s:

recommendations for recruitment

Current programs

Native Youth programs and value of integrative college programs

Challenges and Barriers

• Income disparity

• Native American income is 1/3 of the average American income

• Poverty is highest on reservations (40% of Native youth under 5 lives in poverty; some reservations have 80% unemployement rate)

• 2nd highest High School Drop-out rates

• Results in lower incomes and can lead to legal trouble

• Science education • 4th and 5th grade --- score above standards

• 10th and 11th grade – score below standards

• Typical science education clashes with Native perspectives -- apart vs a part, one must become “raceless”, “ethnostress”

• Historical Trauma

• Boarding schools resulting in lost, disconnected generations

• Extreme mistrust in education and management systems

Sources: Unsworth et al. 2012; Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Tynan and Loew 2010

Challenges and barriers

Understanding educational disparities and historical trauma

Investment opportunity

More Native students are going into natural resource programs

Building the pipeline

From tiny tots to PhD’s:

recommendations for recruitment

Current programs

Intertribal Youth and Young Native Scholars

Native Youth Exchanges and value of tribal colleges

Investment Opportunities Native enrollments at large colleges and universities are showing an upward trend -- 19% increase across all natural resource fields between 2004 and 2011 (IFMAT III report) “There is an overwhelming number of Indian students that I meet who are studying wildlife, forestry, environmental science, etc. at AISES conferences," a trend that wasn't there historically. "It's apparent that more students are pursuing these degrees and they carry a strong commitment to go back to their tribal communities to help with various environmental issues" --- Don Motanic (ITC) "Every year it seems more and more difficult to select top applicants from a pool of already outstanding students" --- Orvie Danzuka (ITC Education Chair) regarding Truman Picard Scholarship selection process

Increasing undergrad enrollments in natural

resource related degrees

Investment Opportunities

Natives have a different way of thinking about the natural world and how it works, which can result in clear understanding of land stewardship

– Bengston 2004 summarized 383 stories from AI news sources. Major themes that arose:

Importance of traditional knowledge, spiritual values, environmental justice, ecosystem/holistic management, survival of people linked to control and management of resources, etc.

– “Native American children tend to have highly sophisticated understandings of nature characterized by complex causal reasoning about interrelationships in nature” (in Unsworth et al. 2012)

Investment Opportunities Native students have large potential to make a big impact in their communities and for US natural resource management

Tribes manage significant: • Timber resources • 30% of US coal • 40% of uranium • 4% of oil and natural gas

(Henson et al. 2007)

Reservations National Forests

55.7 million acres (2.3%) 193 million acres (~4%)

Challenges and barriers

Understanding educational disparities and historical trauma

Investment opportunity

More Native students are going into natural resource programs

Building the pipeline

From tiny tots to PhD’s:

recommendations for recruitment

Current programs

Intertribal Youth and Young Native Scholars

Native Youth Exchanges and value of tribal colleges

Building the Pipeline

• Initial programs tried to create a pipeline but unfortunately only 1 out of 7 BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) administered NIFRMA programs being offered

• Primary recommendations for building a successful pipeline (Hoagland and Gervais 2014)

• Integrated coursework

• Funding for schools and the students they serve

• Mentorship and internship opportunities

Challenges and barriers

Understanding educational disparities and

historical trauma

Investment opportunity

More Native students are going into natural resource programs

Building the pipeline

From tiny tots to PhD’s:

recommendations for recruitment

Current programs

Native Youth programs and value of

Integrative university programs

Current programs

• AISES, SACNAS, AIGC, etc.

• Intertribal Youth and Young Native Scholars (Unsworth et al. 2012)

• Program connected earth and environmental science education to native culture and tradition

• Activities focused on storytelling, rock formations, natural resource management, language, etc.

• Youth understood value of science to tribes and more likely to consider pursuing higher education

• Organic Video Approach (Tynan and Loew 2010)

• Native students created new media products from traditional stories

• Native student professional development program

• Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native, First Nations, Native American students

• Travel scholarships to attend national conferences

Current programs • Tribal colleges are leading the way

• Proactively linking TEK with Western Science

• “Increasing role in creating forestry educational opportunities customized for tribal students” (IFMAT III)

Photo credit: http://www.gocollege.com/financial-aid/college-grants/native-american.html

Tribal college natural resource programs have increased in number and enrollment in last decade.

Map by: Laurel James for Indian Forest Management Assessment Team III report

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Associates

Baccalaureate

Natural Resource degrees at tribal colleges

Tribal College Programs

• Salish Kootenai Tribal College, Pablo, Montana

• Only Accredited 4-yr TCU Forestry program

• Developing a Wildlife and Fisheries 4-yr program

• Northwest Indian College, Lummi Nation, Bellingham Washington

• Tribal Environmental and Natural Resources Management Program (TENRM)

• 2-yr program; Multidisciplinary environmental studies program that prepares NA and AN students for tribal natural resource management

• Designed to meet needs expressed by leaders of 26 Pacific Northwest tribes to train future leaders to address resource management issues within context of community and culture

• Program obtains high retention and graduation rates.

How do we increase retention? Dr. Ed Galindo (Yaqui): Director of Natural Resource Tribal Cooperative Aquaculture Research Institute, University of Idaho

http://www.idahoepscor.org/DrawOtherVideos.aspx?Action=GetDetails&VideoID=6

How do we increase retention within University programs? 1. Personal contact

2. Synergy of a cohort

3. Actively listening to students progress

Increasing the number of Indian foresters, especially in positions of leadership, that care for the resources so important to reservations is a powerful objective

of self-determination and self-governance (IFMAT III)

Tha-wa-eh!

Contact information:

Serra Hoagland, Laguna Pueblo

sjhoagland@fs.fed.us

(928)556-2190

Southern Research Station