Illustration by Bob Lynch

Through Programs in Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, the Tribal Colleges Are Working Together to Solve the Nation’s Most Pressing Environmental Needs

“with our hands we weave our art with our heart we give it life and with our songs we praise this gift… …we are the keepers of the earth and the pulse of the universe…”  A. Kelso

America is quickly approaching a crisis in environmen­tal restoration and waste management. While dump sites around the country are being filled to capacity, there is also a significant decline in skilled technicians and envi­ronmental engineers involved in restoration. The colleges that make up the American Indian Higher Education Consortium are responding to this shortfall of skilled workers with a new initiative called PERMA (Promoting Environmental Restoration/Management for American Indians). Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, PERMA is a joint effort on the part of all Indian controlled colleges to create certificate pro­grams in areas related to environmental and waste management.

This program reflects a growing mandate in American soci­ety to begin the process of environmental restoration, to heal the earth. But it is an issue of special concern to native Americans, who have long suffered the effects of environmen­tal degradation. Because of this and because of deeply held spir­itual connections with the spirit of the land, the tribal colleges are in an ideal position to help this process of healing. This new focus on environmentalism has given the tribal colleges a unique opportunity to form new partnerships with government agencies, progressive leaders of industry and other universities.

The PERMA Network is a powerful illustration of how this mandate can foster cooperation between and among native Americans and other segments of society. The PERMA net­work began in 1990 as a one year, $100,000, grant from the Department of Energy. D-Q University in Davis, California is the fiscal agent and principle investigator for the grant, but the project includes all the tribal colleges. College administrators agree that it is the largest, most comprehensive collaboration yet among the colleges for the strengthening of curricula.

But the PERMA Network goes far beyond simply creating new degree programs—it is also about strengthening math and science for American Indians. While the ultimate goal of this project is to train students for careers in environmental man­agement, the tribal colleges are also using the network to improve math skills, emphasize scientific literacy and build connections to research universities and national laboratories. In addition, the tribal colleges are reaching out to strengthen instruction at the elementary and secondary levels.

These broad-based, intermediate steps are necessary, according to college administrators, because native Americans have been poorly prepared for careers in math and science. The typical Indian college student suffers from histor­ical and social pressures which hamper his or her progress in elementary and secondary schools. Due to lack of support and encouragement from teachers, few American Indians pursue math and science degrees in college. As a result, careers in sci­entific and technical fields are seldom considered as a possibil­ity. In order to break this cycle, and to supply the needed pro­fessionals for an effective clean-up after decades of neglect, the entire educational pipeline has to be built from scratch.

This is especially important in light of a recent survey conducted by Peter House of the National Science Foundation which suggests that the number of gradu­ates entering fields related to environmental engineering, restoration, and waste management is dropping at an alarming rate. This is supported by an independent Department of Energy survey which predicts a shortage of trained environ­mental technicians as vocational programs close and the num­ber of students in science and engineering decline.

PERMA, as of the winter of 1992, is in the final stages of preparing a comprehensive environmental restoration and waste management plan, leading to one of three separate cer­tificate programs, including an option to transfer at the end of two years. This plan has four different components. The first component is a summer bridge program. This would help introduce American Indian students to math and the sciences. It would also work to reinforce the idea that, despite fear and past failure, Indians can successfully study these disciplines.

The second component is a core academic curriculum that would build skills and allow students to transfer to a four-year degree program. The course of study would begin with intro­ductory classes in chemistry, physics, trigonometry and com­puter applications. Instruction in courses such as ecology, earth science or native American perspectives on science would follow.

The third part of the PERMA project is a more vocational­ly-oriented, two-year degree option that would give students the skills needed to perform jobs, including jobs that allow for local employment. Finally, there would also be short term training, allowing students to perform specific tasks.

Left to right: Estela Romo, U.S. Department of Energy, David Archambault, former president, Standing Rock College, Carlos Cordero

Through each of these options, Indian students would be able to participate in one of the fastest growing and most urgently needed professions. In this way, PERMA benefits everyone. “We see this as a win-win situation,” said Estela Romo of the U.S. Department of Energy at a planning meeting held last year at D-Q University. “Educational opportunity is improved, jobs are created and we need the trained personnel.”

The PERMA Network is only a begin­ning, since the problems created by a cen­tury of ecological ignorance cannot be expected to disappear overnight. PERMA project assistant Diane Ralston said, “We’re beginning at a very basic level here. The difficulty is that it may take decades to clean up every toxic waste site in the country. The need for waste man­agement can only grow. The colleges are at the ground floor of a major effort.” What is most promising perhaps is the depth of the Department of Energy’s commitment to working with the tribal colleges.

As the tribal colleges seek to expand their resource base, PERMA can serve as an active role model of how joint efforts can be conducted with agencies, indus­try, and large state universities. We in AIHEC should aggressively pursue such partnerships throughout 1992, and beyond. These partnerships are essential to the search for a solution to the impend­ing environment crisis, and they depend in large part on the commitment by vari­ous government agencies, including the Department of Energy, to involve native Americans in those solutions. As Alan Stack of Tribal Peoples says, “Indian life-ways are part and parcel of the fabric of America, not separate from it. The fate of the American Indian and the fate of the American nation are one and the same.”

The timing of this project is significant at another level. Nineteen ninety-two is the quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. It is a time to reflect on our heritage. But it is also a time to look to the future as envi­ronmental issues once again become a cultural imperative. In the past twenty years Euro-American culture has been groping for an understanding of ecology. It is slowly dawning on the Euro-Americans that the massive environ­mental degradation of the twentieth cen­tury is, in the end, suicidal. Nineteen ninety-two challenges us to reassert our commitment to the earth in deed as well as in name.

Carlos Cordero is president of D-Q University in Davis, California.