The Northwest Indian College is opening a laboratory classroom on its Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation campus. The lab will be available to students and employees of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s natural resources department.
From the college’s website:
With the new lab, NWIC students have the opportunity to use instruments and learn techniques routinely employed by environmental scientists, and by government and private organizations, said NWIC science instructor Joyce McClain. With the experience they will gain, graduates will be able to fill the immediate need for tribal environmental technicians.
The classes will also benefit Tribal Natural Resources and Fisheries employees and tribal fisherman wanting to build on their skills, said Gina Corpuz, instructional manager at the Port Gamble S’Klallam site.
Corpuz said the degree is an important part of the curriculum for the site because Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal members are the original stewards of Gamble Bay.
“Everything that impacts their water, forests and land, changes the quality of life for their tribal community and all forms of life dependent on clean air and water,” she said. “NWIC students who choose Native Environmental Science as their program of study are also choosing to be part of the solution to the global environmental crisis.”
