Secretary Haaland Highlights Biden-Harris Administration Commitment to Building Next-Generation Conservation Workforce in New Mexico and Colorado

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2024
Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

DOLORES, Colo. — This week, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland was in New Mexico and Colorado to highlight how President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is restoring our nation’s public lands and waters, strengthening Indian Country and the use of Indigenous Knowledge, and building a next-generation conservation workforce through the Indian Youth Service Corps which is part of the Administration’s new American Climate Corps.  

On Tuesday, Secretary Haaland met with members of the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps (ALCC) and Acoma Traditional Farm Corps in Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, as they undertook food sovereignty and historic preservation projects for the community. Secretary Haaland launched the Indian Youth Service Corps program in June 2022, a partner-based program designed to provide Indigenous youth with meaningful, Tribally led public service opportunities to support the conservation and protection of natural and cultural resources. In September 2023, the Secretary committed $15 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to strengthen the Indian Youth Service Corps program and other corps programs for underserved communities.  

As part of the funding commitment, Secretary Haaland announced a $480,000 grant for the Acoma Traditional Farm Corps, to advance this Native youth corps in collaboration with the ALCC, Pueblo of Acoma, Pueblo of Isleta, and Pueblo of Zuni. Youth in the program work to restore local Indigenous food systems through agriculture, seed saving, and intergenerational knowledge-sharing, including by providing access to fresh, locally sourced foods for Tribal elders at the Acoma Senior Center. The $15 million commitment is expected to grow corps partnerships by 30 percent, reaching over 5,000 young people, as part of the President’s American Climate Corps.  

On Wednesday, Secretary Haaland traveled to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado to meet with their ALCC trail crew. The monument encompasses 174,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands that contain the highest known archaeological site density in the country, with rich well-preserved evidence of Native American cultures, including a 1,000-year-old ancestral Puebloan site, which includes a 40-room village.   

On Thursday, at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Secretary Haaland joined an ALCC team to learn about how the park has been connecting Indian Youth Service Corps members with their ancestral lands through work in different aspects of preservation and interpretation. This year, Indian Youth Service Corps members have helped maintain some 37 archeological sites in the park to preserve them and keep them safe for public access. During her visit, Secretary Haaland toured some of these sacred sites, including the Far View Sites, a series of mesa top villages inhabited from 800 to 1300 CE.   

To strengthen relationships with their 39 Tribal partners, Mesa Verde National Park, Yucca House National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park utilized funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire a shared Tribal Liaison — part of a Department-wide effort to further pursue co-stewardship and co-management agreements, increasing Tribal consultations, and incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into decision making. 

As part of his historic commitment to tackle the climate crisis, President Biden launched the American Climate Corps to mobilize the next generation of clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience workers. This month the White House announced that more than 15,000 young Americans have been put to work in high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience workforce training and service opportunities through the American Climate Corps – putting the program on track to reach the President’s goal of 20,000 members in the program’s first year ahead of schedule. 

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