Cheyenne River Sioux Starts Entrepreneuer Program with NCCI Help
By Pat Smutz, Communications Director, NW LECET
EAGLE BUTTE, SD - Impressed with the quality of the Native Construction Careers Insttute (NCCI) 300 hour renovation and remodel training program that just graduated 15 trainees, the Cheyenne River tribe has opted for the proverbial icing on the cake and has requested the Custom 200 Hour NCCI Entrepreneur program. The program, pioneered earlier at the Spirit Lake Nation, is the next step in completing the training for the NCCI 300 hour graduates who have shown an aptitude and an interest in becoming specialty contractors.
“I’m proud of the relationships we’ve built with the various tribes throughout the US and Canada and I can say that I’m very proud of the synergistic-like relationship that the Cheyenne River tribe has established with our NCCI program” said Ed Hensley, the Laborer’s Union North American Native Liaison. “We are always promoting the Indian Self-Determination aspect of the program. It’s what we’re all about, empowering tribal members to find good careers in construction.”
Indian preference on public and tribal-funded construction projects is getting a lot of attention in Indian Country, so much attention that tribes are seeking out new ways to build up their Indian-owned contractor base and they are reaching into areas that were not always accessible - including union expertise. With the commitment of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights (CTER) and now the assurance to train on-site by all the NCCI signatory building trades unions, the effort to build that contractor base takes on new proportions. Professionally staffed program coupled with the resources made available by the thousands of union training arms brings the best that has ever entered into Indian Country.
“I’ve been watching the evolution of the NCCI program from an insider’s viewpoint and it has been nothing short of awesome when it comes to the sincerity of all the building trades unions coming to the table and working with us as partners to make projects like this at Cheyenne River stand out as a model of things to come” said Conrad Edwards, CEO of CTER recently. “The program once again took trainees, gave them skills and used a practical project, a men’s halfway house, and everything worked like clockwork.”
Of course it wouldn’t work in the old style of training on the reservation where a dozen or so students were given a quick shot of training, only to find there were no job skills and no jobs at the end of the class. Since LIUNA took the lead in advising on planning and implementing strategic partnerships between the many tribal agencies and the union training units, the CTER field coordinator position has taken on an every greater form of necessity. The field coordinator is like an orchestra’s conductor who knows how to ensure the overall partnership team flows like a symphony. A lot of strategic and tactical problems always arise due to many factors, but since NCCI has been involved in delivering the unique programs, each have achieved unequalled success in their goals.
“I am always amazed at how the people we train are so eager to learn. I guess once they found out that they have a possibility to work on their reservation, build a future and secure a retirement that will pay them to support their families for the rest of their lives, it was an easy choice to choose the NCCI program” said Kevin Buckles CTER’s NCCI Field Representative. “I wish we would have had a program like this ready to go on every reservation, but funding comes from a variety of sources and those sources have to be hunted down and vetted to see if the funding source’s goals are the same as ours and then we find out which tribes are eligible for the funds and we start the process.”