Being Frank
by Ed Johnstone
As tribal leaders, we are looking ahead to the next seven generations of environmental stewards to protect salmon, shellfish, wildlife and plant resources.
It is our responsibility to provide young leaders with the tools to care for the natural resources our ancestors worked so hard to protect.
Ed Johnstone
As part of the federal trust responsibility to uphold tribal treaty rights, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a workforce development workgroup to help guide tribal members into careers in environmental stewardship.
“Our objective is to support tribal youth to go into fishing, conservation management and science careers,” said Dan Tonnes, workforce development specialist for the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “The very experienced tribal folks are retiring and looking for younger tribal members to take their place, but we need to connect them with the educational and career pathways to take advantage of these opportunities.”
In partnership with the Tulalip Tribes, the workgroup organized the first Native Youth Salmon Summit in October, bringing together more than 70 students to celebrate salmon culture and learn about potential careers in salmon conservation and recovery.
A highlight of this summit was a job fair where representatives from nearly 50 colleges, government agencies and nonprofits connected with students, showing a wide variety of career options.
In December, the workgroup offered a webinar to share career development opportunities at NOAA, Washington Sea Grant and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nearly 40 people attended, including high school and college students, as well as young people starting their careers.
Working for federal agencies is just one option for our young leaders. The aim of the workgroup is not to create a career pipeline, but instead a braided river with many pathways, including careers in tribal natural resources departments.
We’re bringing together representatives from tribes, weaving a network to share successes and expand programs that provide tribal members opportunities to work for their own communities.
Across the region, tribes are working to train the next generation of environmental stewards.
The Nisqually Indian Tribe partnered with Northwest Trek Wildlife Park to create a nature engagement fellowship. As the first fellow, Nisqually elder Rose Wells mentored tribal youth at the park, teaching them about potential careers working in nature.
Taholah High School students worked side by side with the Quinault Indian Nation to collect data and trap invasive European green crab. The students’ work filled a budgetary gap in response to the state’s declaration of emergency in Grays Harbor.
At Neah Bay High School, Makah tribal students operate their own fish hatchery. In addition to giving the students hands-on experience, the hatchery program has been integrated into lessons in social studies, English, science and media classes.
It’s rewarding to see our students energized by these programs.
“We are all connected through salmon, and we all need to do our part to support salmon and each other,” one student said of their key takeaway from the Native Youth Salmon Summit at Tulalip.
Another said the most rewarding part of the summit was “Engaging with Indigenous leaders and hearing that their perspectives and knowledge are being celebrated and intertwined with modern ways.”
We look forward to more educational partnerships in the future. We’re counting on the next generation to continue the work of managing our treaty-protected resources. That means staffing hatcheries, habitat restoration crews, data-gathering teams and other natural resources management positions.
The strength of our tribes needs to be called upon if we’re going to win this battle. If we can get our youth involved, we can gain momentum.
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Ed Johnstone is chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (www.nwifc. org). This column represents the natural resources management interests and concerns of the treaty Indian tribes in western Washington.
