Building the Tribal Workforce for Tribal Stewardship

Audience(s): Tribes, non-tribal government partners, NGO partners

Tribal Stewardship Policy priorities: Caring for the Land; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Funding Stewardship 

Objectives: This toolkit entry highlights opportunities and strategies for California Native American tribes seeking to build the tribal workforce to advance tribal stewardship. It includes information on the California Conservation Corps program and best practices and lessons learned from Tribal Corps practitioners.

Building the Tribal Workforce

This toolkit entry was developed to support the implementation of California Natural Resources Agency’s Tribal Stewardship Policy and Toolkit. This webinar and associated resources are intended to increase the capacity of tribes, state agencies, and non-tribal entities to advance tribal stewardship, including tribal access, collaboration, and ancestral land return according to the CNRA Tribal Stewardship Policy. This toolkit entry highlights opportunities and strategies for California Native American tribes seeking to build the tribal workforce to advance tribal stewardship. The webinar highlights speakers from the California Conservation Corps program who discuss opportunities to engage in the program as well as Tribal Corps practitioners discussing best practices and lessons learned. Explore the resources below to learn more about establishing a Tribal Conservation Corps.

Watch the webinar:

 

This webinar features JP Patton, Director of the California Conservation Corps (CCC), as well as Giavanna Hampton, the Grants and Local Assistance Director of the CCC, who discuss opportunities for tribes to establish Conservation Corps programs with CCC funding and support. Stacy Gorin, Executive Director of the Conservation Corps of the Inland Empire, discusses the process of establishing a Tribal Corps and shares helpful resources. Jordan Reyes, Field Coordinator at Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, discusses the Native Stewards Fellowship, the EcoCultural Fire Crew, and the Lake EcoCultural Cal-TREX. Thomas Gustie, Environmental Director and Natural Resources Coordinator for the Bishop Paiute Tribe discusses building the Bishop Paiute Tribal Conservation Corps as a seasonal corps program operating on tribal and federal lands. Download the webinar slides here.

Resources

  • California Conservation Corps’ Tribal Corps Program
    • Through Nature-Based Solutions funding, the California Conservation Corps supports California Native American tribes through support of Tribal Corps programs. The CCC encourages grantees of the CNRA to collaborate with Tribes and Tribal Corps on their projects. This webpage also includes contact information for Tribal Corps around the state for organizations and departments seeking to collaborate with a Tribal Corps.
    • Hire a Crew, Host a Corpsmember | California Conservation Corps
  • Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance | About Our Work
    • The Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance (TERA) is a community-based intertribal nonprofit organization that works to revitalize ecology, economy, and culture through Indigenous-led stewardship.
    • TERA facilitates the Native Stewards Fellowship, a 140-hour workforce development program which brings together Traditional knowledge with wildfire resilience, vocational skills, and ecocultural land stewardship.
    • The Lake EcoCultural Cal-TREX is a prescribed fire and cultural burning training exchange intended to build capacity for Tribes, community members, private landowners, agencies, and NGO’s to collaborate to bring good fire back to the land, for the benefit of all.
    • As part of Cal-TREX, TERA also staffs an on-call EcoCultural Fire Crew, working to return cultural burning and prescribed fire to the traditional lands of the Lake Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo people.
  • Learn more about the Bishop Paiute Tribe's Conservation Corps program here: NR Program About — Environmental Management Office
  • CNRA’s Youth Community Access (YCA) Grant Program
    • Read about the YCA Grant Program, which supports youth access to natural or cultural resources with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities. The YCA Grant Program helps advance Outdoors for All, California’s initiative to expand parks and outdoors spaces in communities that need them the most, improve access to the outdoors for those who lack, and help all Californians feel a sense of belonging in the outdoors.
  • Native Youth Wildland Firefighter Training Program | Department of the Interior
    • The Native Youth Wildland Firefighter Training Program is a partnership between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education to prepare Native students for careers in wildland firefighting.
  • For more on cultural burn agreements, check out the Senate Bill 310 Cultural Burn Agreements toolkit entry.