His fascination grew over the years, as did that potential.
Neosh, a member of the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin, sympathized with activists’ fears that the pipeline would threaten the Dakota regions’ water supply and sacred burial grounds.
Plus, what training exists often fails to resonate with Native people, focusing more on technical skills than on environmental knowledge and cultural practices.
As a result, green-collar jobs are dominated by white men, with many low-income people of color either unaware of the opportunities or unable to access them.
The trend toward green jobs is bolstered by record-high demand for sustainable products and government incentives to move away from fossil fuels and practices such as factory farming and overfishing.
Such education is flexible and hands-on, allowing students to adapt to changing technologies in an effort to meet the demand for a workforce that’s both skilled and environmentally conscious, experts say.
That’s because nearly all tribes are located in flood plains or areas prone to extreme weather events and/or dependent on economies “linked with climate-sensitive resources,” the panel concluded.
Enrollment in CTE overall is down.
And, generally speaking, Indigenous Americans face limited access to higher education and science, technology, engineering, and math-related fields.
CTE, which used to be known as vocational education, has “a painful history of tracking,” she added, referring to the practice of funneling people of color into low-wage jobs.
Greening Youth’s mission is to connect young people of color with green careers, and Ezeilo said the foundation has struggled to recruit Indigenous youth for jobs with the U.S.
Deciding shortly after high school that college “didn’t feel right,” Goodheart started working in construction to start making money and learn about trade work.
At Solar Energy International in Colorado, he secured certificates in residential and commercial photovoltaic systems and solar business and technical sales.
After COVID shelved plans to go back for his bachelor’s degree – he didn’t like the idea of distance learning – Goodheart linked up with a local anti-poverty nonprofit that had done some work providing energy assistance to low-income members of the Nez Perce tribe.
Neosh, having completed her associates degree in natural resources, also found her way back to her reservation – as an intern at the Sustainable Development Institute, part of the College of Menominee Nation.
She grew up in the midst of a decades-long battle over a hard-rock mining project near the headwaters of the Wolf River, a scenic tributary that flows through the Menominee Reservation.
She knew they’ve long garnered interest from scholars and environmentalists globally because of how they’re managed sustainably: As has been Menominee custom for thousands of years, the forests aren’t clear-cut.
Today, the forest – and the Menominees’ methods of sustaining it – fill her with pride.
Each year Congress authorizes roughly $14 million to federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native organizations, and other Indigenous education entities to provide CTE to native students.
A place-based mindset to such education/training – and, specifically, efforts to recruit more Indigenous Americans to such fields – could be key to ensuring this industry promotes economic mobility.
The trainees not only got a feel for a promising industry but also regained a sense of what it means to be part of a community of Native innovators.
Goodheart says he’s turned down several jobs outside of the reservation.