“I want to work anywhere that benefits Native people.” “I want to support my tribe and protect its natural resources.” These were some of the statements made by the first graduating class of the Master of Tribal Resource & Environmental Stewardship (MTRES) program.
Shannon Kesner, who already holds the position of wetland specialist with the Fond du Lac Band, in Cloquet, Minn., says she is gaining deeper understanding about the environment. The program makes clear that the “quality of our natural resources affect the health of our people, especially the quality of the water and air,” she says.
Another student, Thomas Howes, who works with the Fond du Lac Band’s natural resources program, says the program is not only academic. “We study other approaches and we can apply that wisdom. I appreciate seeing how the world turns in Indian Country.”
Kesner and Howes join two other students to make the first MTRES graduating class. The group is led by Professors Kekek Jason Stark, a Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, and Wendy F Smythe, Alaska Native Haida. Kekek is an alumnus of Hamline University School of Law. He came to UMD with a long history commanding classrooms and courtrooms and serving tribal groups across the Midwest. Smythe is a geoscientist and oceanographer who received her Ph.D. from OHSU Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction in Portland, OR.
The program concept for the MTRES program came when Wayne Dupuis ’87 at Fond du Lac approached Rick Smith, director of the UMD American Indian Learning Resource Center, and Professor Tadd Johnson (American Indian Studies), now the senior director of American Indian Tribal Nations Relations for the University of Minnesota. During the following three years they worked with UMD professors, Howard Mooers, Jim Zorn, Rachel Breckinridge, and scores of others to develop MTRES. Smith, Johnson, and others from UMD met with natural resource managers in tribes across the northland to get input. Johnson said, “MTRES is a program designed by Indian tribes for Indian tribes.”
Mark Pero, an MTRES class member from the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin, says, “Tobacco led me here.” He found out about the program and felt “an instant connection,” a connection he considers sacred, the same way tobacco is sacred to him.
Ever since Pero was a child he has felt that “our people and the environment go hand in hand.” Pero enjoys the reading assignments, the class projects, and the discussions. He says: "I know the program is leading me somewhere I need to be."
Students participate in person and from remote locations in the MTRES program. They all agree; MTRES is meaningful on a career level and a personal level as well.