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https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2022/06/13/indian-youth-service-corps-aims-to-combat-climate-change-empower-native-youth/
Indian Youth Service Corps aims to combat climate change, empower
Native youth
By Hannah
Grover
The
U.S. Department of the Interior launched the new Indian Youth Service Corps
and announced the program guidelines on Friday.
This
program—which was created through the John S. McCain III 21st Century
Conservation Service Corps Act—is modeled after other successful programs
like the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps.
The
Department of the Interior is providing $2 million to the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, $700,000 to the National Park Service and $600,000 to the Bureau of
Reclamation to establish this program.
Its
goal is to provide opportunities for Native Americans ages 16 to 30 to gain
work experience in the natural resources field while also preserving traditional
practices of land stewardship and creating awareness of Indigenous culture
and history.
During
a press conference on Friday, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland spoke
about her Laguna Pueblo connections and being in the outdoors with her grandfather.
She said the Indigenous people are the original stewards of the lands.
The
National Park Foundation announced on Friday that it will be contributing $1
million to help get the program off the ground. It is funding ten projects in
various states including New Mexico.
“These projects will engage tribal youth in a
wide range of conservation and preservation activities,” Will Shafroth, the
foundation’s president and CEO, said during a press conference.
He said that one unique thing about the program
is that the participants will also be “protecting indigenous cultural
practices, languages and traditional ecological knowledge used for land
management.”
“We have so much
to learn from tribal members about these things is how we manage our public
lands,” he said.
U.S.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said her first job was in the Youth Conservation
Corps. She also spoke about the wildfires burning in New Mexico and said
service corps like the Indian Youth Service Corps are important in the effort
to combat climate change.
She
said the next generation needs to be empowered with the tools and resources
needed to help landscapes and communities recover after devastating
wildfires.
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