SENSITIZING THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE

1) Hold a one­day training seminar to sensitize Federal employees, managers, and supervisors of American Indian Issues. The AIPC held a training on November 19, 1996, during Native American Heritage Month. Co­sponsors included the Metro State College American Indian Student Empowerment program and the Colorado State Commission on Indian Affairs. The training, "Mending the Hoop: Real and Perceived Issues of Trust", was held at the Tivoli Center on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver. Workshops were designed to help federal workers understand the issues which impact programs they are responsible for implementing. Over 200 people attended the training, including ten American Indian students. Elizabeth Homer of the U.S. Office of American Indian Trust, and Norbert Hill of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society were the featured speakers.

2) Sensitize Federal employees about American Indian and Tribal issues. Several AIPC members arranged for activities and Indian speakers to address their agencies on these issues during November, Native American Heritage month. The "Notes from Native America" were circulated among members with e-mail to pass along and were published on the AIPC Website. Announcements having to do with events, controversies, and legislation affecting Indian interests were likewise circulated. Interest stirred by the Training Seminar led to an inter-agency effort in the Department of Interior to develop a comprehensive training course for land managers in Trust Responsibility. Several AIPC members attended a symposium hosted by the U.S. Office of American Indian Trust on Executive Order 13007 and Sacred Site Consultation. Tribal representatives and government employees broke into concurrent workgroups to evaluate how consultation should be accomplished in accordance with the EO and tribal wishes.

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

3) Ensure that American Indian groups are notified of vacancies within thefederal government. The Denver Noticiero, which lists vacancies within the federal government, is distributed regularly to Council members. The AIPC website has an employment opportunities page which is frequently updated to include current job opportunities in the Denver area and nationally. E-mail announcements are regularly circulated. AIPC members have done some targeted minority recruitment within their agencies, when vacancies have occurred and at management's request.

4) Develop an outreach to Native American youth to focus on jobopportunities both within and outside the federal workplace. Several AIPC members attended the national AISES conference. They also participate in local AISES Colorado professional chapter meetings. Job opportunities for youth were circulated at meetings.

5) Support educational opportunities for American Indian youth and participate in programs and organizations with similar goals. An AIPC member was instrumental in NOAA funding the AISES student regional representative meeting in Boulder. The AIPC Training Seminar in November offered free tuition for Indian students at Metropolitan State College. A Student Opportunities page was added to the Website. One AIPC member served on scholarship committees for both the American Chemical Society Minority Scholarship program and the American Geological Institute Minority Scholarship program. One member sat on a committee at Haskell Indian Nations University developing Introductory Geology curriculum.

PUBLICITY FOR AIPC

6) Inform American Indians of the goals of the AIPC. Outreach to otherfederal Indian programs via the Internet, our AIPC homepage and personal contact. The AIPC Website has been expanded to include announcements of general interest in Indian Country as well as links to other Native resource homepages. In linking, we are also cross-linked in their pages and in other government homepages like HUD's Codetalk and the Peace Corps homepage. The address of the AIPC homepage is: http://tipswww.osmre.gov/~lwindle/AIPC

Letters of support from Indian programs across the country were included in a packet sent to the U.S. Office of American Indian Trust, in an entreaty for help in establishing a national coalition of federal Indian groups.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

7) Support and cooperate with community American Indian organizations. Several members are representing the AIPC on the Government Subcommitteeof the General Planning Committee for RES/98, a reservation economic summit aimed at tribal businesses and Indian entrepreneurs, to be held in Denver in April of 1998. Job announcements have been posted with CERT and AISES. Local Indian non-profitorganizations were invited and set up tables at the training seminar in November. Several members are part of the pre-conference planning committee for the American Indian Science and Engineering Society's 20th Annual Conference to be held in Denver in 1998.

8) Bring American Indian issues to interested private sector andcommunity groups. One AIPC member was a speaker at two different regional meetings of the American Chemical Society. The topic on which she spoke was "Workplace Issues for American Indians."