Tribal leaders are looking to the next generation to continue the work of recovering salmon, shellfish and wildlife populations.
To tackle that work requires sufficiently staffing hatcheries, habitat restoration crews, data-gathering teams and other natural resources management positions―and making sure tribal youth know these career opportunities exist.
“The strength of our tribes needs to be called upon if we’re going to win this battle, and if we can get our youth involved, I think then we can gain momentum,” said NWIFC Chairman Ed Johnstone.
“If we continue the fight, we keep hope alive,” said NWIFC Vice Chair Lisa Wilson.
In an effort to energize the region’s tribal youth about careers related to salmon recovery, the NWIFC and the Tulalip Tribes hosted a Native Youth Salmon Summit in mid-October. The two-day summit provided activities showcasing career pathways into natural resources management work critical to sustaining salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.
“The summit was very informative about the importance of salmon and how tribes utilize the salmon,” said Lummi Nation teen Aiyanna Brown. “I learned a lot.”
Nearly 70 students attended, with participants including members of eight NWIFC member tribes―Lower Elwha Klallam, Lummi, Makah, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Quinault and Tulalip―and of other Native American tribes.
Tulalip elder and fisherman Glen Gobin welcomed the crowd and set the stage for summit activities.
“We are here today because of the value of salmon; the value of it as food and the value of it as culture,” Gobin said in a welcoming address to the crowd. “The salmon is what has grounded us, and to protect the environment where the salmon live is our biggest challenge today.”
Youth learned more about those challenges through hands-on activities at the Tulalip Tribes’ hatchery, along a slough in the Snohomish River estuary, at the tribes’ marina, and at the tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Center.
“I enjoyed seeing my students learn through hands-on activities that were meaningful to them,” said Holly Keedy, a science teacher at Neah Bay High School.
Indigenous science professionals also shared their journeys into the workforce—as a natural resources technician, a college student completing a tribal natural resources management degree, a scientist with a federal agency, and a scientist with Tulalip—during a speaker series.
With nearly 50 representatives from various colleges, government agencies and nonprofits in attendance for a career fair at the summit, students connected with dozens more professionals in salmon recovery and learned about a variety of career opportunities in natural resources stewardship.
Patricia Gardner said her sons, of Nisqually, learned at the event that they could work for tribes in a variety of capacities, and federal jobs aren’t the only option. One is preparing to study marine biology at college next fall.
“There are so many different types of jobs and there is no one single path,” one attendee commented on an anonymous feedback form for the first-time event. “Everyone has a different journey and there are multiple ways to support salmon and our communities.”
Summit participants enjoyed a salmon dinner during the event, along with geoduck chowder made with shellfish donated by Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, and desserts topped with huckleberries donated by the Nisqually Environmental Team—a sampling of the traditional foods that natural resources management professionals can work to protect.
Above: Arielle Valencia, left, junior chairwoman of the Tulalip Youth Council, and Jose Rocha experiment with dissecting salmon smolts during the Native Youth Salmon Summit.
Second row, left to right: Tulalip and NOAA Fisheries staff demonstrate beach seining for a Native Youth Salmon Summit tour group. A net is used to scoop up a juvenile hatchery chinook, caught in a beach seine along the Snohomish River estuary, so that summit participants can take a closer look at the fish. Students test their luck at a NOAA board game that shows the types of obstacles salmon encounter during their migrations, resulting in just 1 out of 100 fish surviving long enough to complete their life cycle and spawn.
Photos and story by NWIFC staff.
Learn more:
To stay updated on future Native Youth Salmon Summit opportunities or to partner with organizers, visit the web page: Native Youth Salmon Summit
