SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Two members of the Washoe Tribe sat at the spotlit table in the school theater during the opening night of the Sierra Nevada Alliance Conservation Conference on Nov. 7.

The conference, held at Lake Tahoe Community College on Nov. 7-8, brought together Washoe Tribe members Lydell Wyatt, and Thurman Roberts, along with Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe vice chair, Pamela Cubbler, to discuss workforce development in natural and working lands during the conference’s opening night.

The three member panel delved into barriers and challenges Tribal communities face while advancing workforce development on natural and working lands.

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“For us, some of the barriers were just being able to pay a wage,” Cubbler said. “So funding was one of our main barriers because you just can’t get a big group of people out, even if they have an interest, [if] they have jobs or need jobs.”

Funding has also been an issue for the Washoe Tribe, but so has capacity, Wyatt said. “We’re 1,100 strong for over 6 million acres of traditional land to cover.” Although, there are opportunities with the Forest Service, partnership agreements, good neighbor agreements, and memorandums of understanding, he explained, “…there’s not enough of us to do all the work that needs to be done.”

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He said another barrier is getting caught up on practices that they had previously done for thousands of years. “The capacity and years it will take to get it back to where we’re working one with it again is something in the future we’re looking towards and what we’re planning now.”

Wyatt also shared his experience on challenges related to Tribal access to fires. “It’s hard for us to be recognized as our own stewards without having our own agency, if you will.” He explained, unless a Tribe has their own fire agency, members have to work for the Forest Service, BLM or CalFire.

“Sure, they’ll get you your red card, they’ll get you your badge or give you your boots, but,” he said, “Tribes want to do it ourselves because we have a certain practice and a way of doing it, too.”

“Because to me,” he added, “it’s more than just putting the fire out when you’re out there.” 

Roberts, the Tribal Navigator at Nevadaworks, northern Nevada’s workforce development board, works with 22 Tribes and Tribal communities on workforce development. He said one barrier he sees is many Tribal people falling into addictions, or falling away from the language and culture.

Wyatt, as the Washoe Tribe’s Off-Reservation Representative, said around 60-70% of the Washoe population live off reservation. “But the goal is to get us back here.”

One way he’s doing that is by bolstering workforce development opportunities. Also as the Tribe’s Lake Tahoe liaison, he’s found funding through the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act and other sources and is working with partners like the Forest Service with a few departments developing jobs for the Tribe in regards to stewardship.

Wyatt said collaboration with state and federal government has been working well, the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act being one of them, as well as the multi-partner Environmental Improvement Program.

“Everybody is conscious about it now, not just us, in realizing that we were on to something as far as being one with the land, working with the land, and not so much capitalizing on the land,” he said.

Cubbler has experienced more opportunities opening up for her Tribe in the last five years in providing consultation and being eligible for grant opportunities to build workforces. “They really want to know what we have known in history and in time and what we’ve seen and what we feel that we can help with,” she said, “It’s just opening.”

Roberts added that as these opportunities are opening up, it has included the recognition of utilizing generationally passed indigenous knowledge of local land, known as traditional ecological knowledge or TEK. He said many Tribes are coalescing to show a united front and capacity to demonstrate how people within the Tribes care about the environment and reestablishing those traditional practices. “And there’s great agencies who are recognizing the need to support and also take an asset-based approach when engaging with Tribes,” he added.

This opened up the further discussion on how to protect TEK as organizations and educational institutions build partnerships with Tribes.

According to the panel, there was no easy answer as there are intricacies to sort out within each Tribe on the matter. “Oftentimes there’s been fighting within the Tribe itself, as to who can really say they own that knowledge,” Roberts explained, “or actually where it fits best with.”

“I think it’s a process that we’re coming up with,” Cubbler added. “It all comes down to trust, and that seems to take quite a while to build.”

Roberts said although they don’t entirely have an answer, it still needs to be consistently talked about.

However, overall the panel said compensation for knowledge when it is provided is important.

The panel discussed ways non-profit organizations and educational institutions can support Tribal natural and working land workforce development.

Wyatt emphasized developing curricular programs or internships, not just for Tribal people, but anyone who wants to learn shared Tribal knowledge. “We don’t want to share it all, but we’ll give you a little bit,” he said, sparking laughter.

Cubbler built on his answer and said non-profits and educational organizations can help broaden the knowledge of what Tribes do. “I think we work really quietly in our own world. We work really hard,” she said, but it’s not well known.

Thurman said he has seen a need among Tribal members for adult education at these institutions. He provided an example of work he’s doing within the Nevada System of Higher Education with integrated education and training that provides context for forestry and fire, but also provides support in reading, writing, and comprehension, “…Where you’re actually addressing the whole person as a person, but you’re also building them up for other attainments.” He said learning these trades with the adult education aspect allow individuals to progress into higher education.

The panel wrapped up the evening by answering questions from the audience. In answering a question about how to better cooperate with Tribes, Wyatt gave the invitation to reach out.

Roberts said although emails open doors, being consistently in person is important since high context communication style is valued among Tribal people, where meaning is conveyed through non-verbal communication forms like body language and tone.