TERO conference at Wildhorse

Continued from Page 4B by the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Bannock tribes of Idaho; Indigenizing & Solution Based Training by Lummi Nation; and Tribal Council discussion TERO 101 Best Practices by Brian Porter of Swinomish TERO.

A TERO-ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) panel included representatives from the CTUIR and ODOT. Barkley moderated the panel covering the MOU, noting that the CTUIR was the first Indian tribe to have such an agreement addressing employment and Indian preference policies prescribed by the Federal Highway Administration (FwHA) since August 1984.

ODOT members included Angela Crain, Civil Rights Director; Ken Patterson, Region Manager for Region 5 (northeast Oregon); and Rex Stanley, Region 5 Field Coordinator for the ODOT Office of Civil Rights. TERO staff met with ODOT after the panel at the Tam á st slikt Cultural Institute for their annual meeting to discuss the MOU, and afterwards ODOT officials toured the museum exhibit wing.

The MOU applies a boundary that extends about 60 miles beyond the Umatilla Indian Reservation. TERO has projects in Oregon as far away as Huntington and Joseph. Through federal authorization, TERO can bill in “off-reservation situations” at an “agreed upon rate for service rendered,” i.e., recruitment, employee referral and related supportive services.

According to the policy, “proceeds are used by tribes to develop and maintain their skills bank, to fund job referrals, counseling, liaison, and other services and activities related to the employment and training of Indians.”

The Confederated Tribes’ TERO is implementing a pre-apprenticeship construction training program and hiring an Apprenticeship Training Coordinator to manage the program and administer a Ready For Oregon grant awarded to TERO by the Bureau of Labor Industries (BOLI).

“We need to train younger adults by orienting them to the various opportunities in the building trades, their benefits, and the prevailing wage jobs offered,” said Barkley. “We’re leasing space at the Food Distribution Center (in Coyote Business Park South) where we have an office and shop.”

TERO is training students from the Nixyáawii Charter School construction class on a CAT simulator that provides lessons on both front-end loader and motor grader, and a welding simulator.

According to the MOU, “ODOT considers the availability of a pool of skilled and trained workers in heavy highway construction trades to be beneficial to Federal-Ad highway projects on or near the Reservation.”

TERO earmarks its fees derived from ODOT projects for training related to bridge and highway construction, and also supports its own program.

“Since the pandemic,” Barkley said, “the construction industry has faced labor shortages and we see training as a valuable resource to prepare a younger workforce to capitalize on viable construction career opportunities offered under the MOU and with our tribal projects.”

Plans have been developed to build a new hotel, convention center, and parking garage at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino, and a waste-water treatment plant that will free up 300 acre feet of groundwater for economic growth. Building these projects requires building a training program to facilitate the labor needed on these projects, Barkley said.

Attendees of the regional conference also enjoyed some bowling, golf, gambling, and sight-seeing. The national CTER convention August 8-11 will be at the Coeur d’ Alene tribal resort and casino.