Amplifying Native Workforce Development

Published November 17, 2025

This Native American Heritage Month, we’re honored to be featured in the new National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Workforce Development Toolkit —a powerful resource shaped by years of collaboration with Tribal Nations, Native-led organizations, and workforce leaders across Indian Country.

At Lomakatsi Restoration Project, our Inter-Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Partnership (ITERP) blends hands-on training with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK), empowers participants to earn professional certifications to steward the land. At Lomakatsi, the goal of ITERP is to restore aquatic and terrestrial habitats, work collaboratively to plan and conduct landscape-scale ecological restoration, and repair impacts to ecocultural systems that Indigenous communities depend on for subsistence and survival.

As a federal Indian Youth Service Corps partner, our pathway—the Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program—connects trainees to full-time employment in ecological restoration. Graduates go on to serve Tribal Nations, federal agencies, or join our team at Lomakatsi.

This toolkit uplifts self-determined, comprehensive workforce strategies—aligned with our mission and the transformative work of ITERP.