Ray Austin: Forest Service must hire more Native Americans

It is time for federal agencies to increase efforts to hire and recruit Native Americans. Even if 5 percent of the 90,000 jobs were designated for hiring Native Americans (NA), that would mean 4,470 jobs. In a recent May 2013 nationwide recruitment for hundreds of USFS (Unites States Forest Service) Information Technology jobs, it is certain that very few or no Native Americans were hired, which may be typical for all federal agencies.

The combined budgets of all the natural resource/service based government offices totals over $13 billion dollars, which includes the Department of Interior Bureau Offices and the Department of Agriculture, USFS. Not included in this total are the other Indian-related offices: the Office of Special Trustee, Alaska Affairs – Review of Federal Subsistence, Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Indian Gaming, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Intergovernmental and External Affairs, Interior Museum, Land Buy-Back Program, Secretary of Indian Water Rights, Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development.

The federal budget of the natural resource based organizations (Agriculture and Interior Departments) funds about 90,000 federal jobs. I believe that the resource rich Indian lands help to justify funding of existing programs and jobs.