Nehinaw Métis
Photo by David Cournoyer
Although John Desjarlais physically left his home village of Cumberland House in Saskatchewan years ago, the impact of his upbringing never left him. It’s not hard to see why. Located in a high-elevation delta, Cumberland House is surrounded by the Saskatchewan River and Cumberland Lake and home to sky-high pine trees. Its location made it a hub in the fur trade because boats had navigable routes to western North America as well as Montreal and Hudson Bay to the east.
Desjarlais recounts the area’s history with enthusiasm, including the fact that Indigenous communities were a major driver behind the fur trade. “Indigenous people were really instrumental in that success,” says Desjarlais, this year’s winner of the Executive Excellence Award. “There’s a reclaiming and retelling of that history, especially with truth and reconciliation, which has been really good.”
But more than anything, Desjarlais recalls a youth spent connected to his cultural roots and nature. The remote location of Cumberland House is a big reason why Desjarlais had the experience he did. “One thing that is unique to northern Canada is that there wasn’t a lot of loss of language and culture around sustenance and land use,” he says. “Our community grew up hunting and fishing and gathering for medicine, ceremonies, and sustenance.”
Desjarlais has maintained that strong connection to both nature and his culture throughout his remarkable educational and career journey. Today, Desjarlais serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN), an organization that empowers Native communities to use their natural resources in ways that are sustainable, respectful, and beneficial for their culture and society.
“Indigenous people are starting to own large infrastructure projects, which never has happened.”
In many aspects, it’s a job that Desjarlais has been preparing for since he was hunting and fishing around Cumberland House. Desjarlais eventually followed his knack for math and science and relentless curiosity about the natural world to Northlands College, where he studied mine safety and prepped to enter an industry his father worked in. “I was incredibly influenced by mining, one of the economic drivers in my region,” Desjarlais says. “The industry had a special relationship with the North and Indigenous people, and it created a belief where I thought, OK, that industry cares about me and I want to be in it.”
For nearly a decade, Desjarlais held several engineering positions for the mining company Cameco. During that time, he also earned an engineering degree and MBA at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as numerous professional certifications; Desjarlais is also currently pursuing a master’s degree in governance and entrepreneurship in northern and Indigenous areas. After leaving Cameco, Desjarlais served as CEO of the Saskatchewan River Business Corporation, general manager at Great Plains Contracting LP, and the first Indigenous president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.
As he developed new skills and experiences, Desjarlais wanted to apply all that he was learning to directly benefit Indigenous communities through economic development — which in March 2023 led to his current role as executive director at IRN. “Ultimately, I felt like the full value of what I was doing was going to an organization, which is great, and benefiting shareholders and senior executives,” Desjarlais says.
That mission benefits from the sustainable and community-minded approach Indigenous communities have always taken toward natural resources. The philosophy is increasingly embraced in the natural resources industry. “Indigenous people are starting to own large infrastructure projects, which never has happened,” Desjarlais says. “There’s greater inclusion and companies are aligning with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) priorities in a way that has never happened before. Indigenous culture and skills align with that and can make big contributions.”
As a leader, Desjarlais has embraced the lessons his parents taught him growing up in Cumberland House. “My parents were incredibly generous and community oriented, always looking after people and family. Relationships, kinship, friendship, and community were important to them,” Desjarlais says. “They were servant leaders, and that is the approach I have tried to follow.”
The tribal affiliation of John Desjarlais, Nehinaw Métis, was inadvertently misspelled in the print edition of this issue. We apologize for the error.
Yurok Tribe of California
Photos by John Heil/USFWS (above) and David Cournoyer (below)
By any objective measure, the notion that Keith Parker needed to change careers when he reached his 40s would be borderline outlandish. Parker had already accumulated a wealth of experience as everything from an emergency medical technician to a successful Bay Area financial advisor to an economic leader with his Yurok tribe in northern California.
But by 2011, Parker felt that he had no choice but to make a radical detour in his life. Parker admits that he was driven in part by anger when he headed to Cal Poly Humboldt to pursue an undergraduate degree in biology. After all, he had watched helplessly as the once vibrant Klamath River Basin ecosystem was steadily degraded, including the largest adult fish kill in U.S. history in 2002 and frequent blue-green algal blooms that were making tribal waters potentially lethal.
Like others in his community, Parker worked hard to protest the water flow management practices and continued reliance on Klamath River dams that drove much of the ecological destruction. “I spoke out at public meetings with the state and federal agencies where they give you three minutes,” says Parker, this year’s winner of the Technical Excellence Award. He soon got tired of hearing traditional knowledge dismissed as anecdotal or mythology. “They’d say it’s not proven because it’s not written down,” he recalls. “They’d give you three minutes, blow you off, and continue to destroy our ecosystem.”
“Western science realizes that climate change is such a huge problem they can’t wrap their minds around it, they can’t plan for it, and they’re having to think outside the box. And outside the box includes what Indigenous people have been doing since before the last ice age.”
Parker realized that the government decision makers would have to listen to him if he had Western academic credentials. So after earning his undergraduate degree, Parker completed a master’s in fisheries and molecular biology.
Now a senior fisheries biologist for his Yurok tribe and the recipient of multiple research grants from organizations like the National Science Foundation, Parker’s transition into biology has been a remarkable success. His genetic research on the Pacific lamprey — a jawless fish tribes traditionally relied on when salmon weren’t running — was a factor in the decision to remove dams along the Klamath River. His research also confirmed the effectiveness of Yurok management of traditional waterways and even discovered two subspecies of Pacific lamprey.
Parker has not only obtained an advanced scientific degree and earned the respect of mainstream scientists, he is also in a position to advocate for the application of TEK (traditional ecological knowledge). “Once I got my master’s degree, I could speak their language,” Parker says. “But I can also combine it with my traditional knowledge to become more of a translator between the two worldviews.”
Even since Parker began his pursuit of Western scientific credentials, he has noticed a big change in how once-skeptical scientists regard TEK. One big reason: the impact of climate change. “Western science realizes that climate change is such a huge problem they can’t wrap their minds around it, they can’t plan for it, and they’re having to think outside the box,” Parker says. “And outside the box includes what Indigenous people have been doing since before the last ice age. As the original citizen scientists, we were able to support a healthy river ecosystem for over 10,000 years.”
What Parker tries to do with his fisheries management work and teaching and advocacy is combine the best practices of both worldviews. One example is the tribal approach to fires. “The Klamath basin burned every year because the tribes knew that fire is how you get the fuel load out,” he says. “We burned because we knew ecologically that was the way to maintain the oak trees. You burn just enough to kill the underbrush and get good deer and acorn populations to come back,” Parker says. “But you don’t burn so much that you destroy the trees. Those controlled burns had been practiced for thousands of years before Europeans came and said all fire was bad.”
That old perception of fire is changing, and federal agencies are increasingly utilizing controlled burns in their forest management. Parker plans to continue melding mainstream science and TEK and in the process, he also hopes to change the long-held Western view that natural resources are there to either be exploited or protected. “The problem with both those paradigms is that you are saying that you’re separate from nature, that human beings are not part of nature, and we have dominion over nature,” Parker says. “Whereas the traditional view is literally the opposite. We’re completely integrated into nature, human beings are equal to everything else that’s living in nature, and we’re a part of the system.”
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians
Photo by David Cournoyeer
A quick glance at Aurora White’s resume could give the impression that she was almost predestined to win an award like this year’s Most Promising Engineer or Scientist. After all, White earned a BS in mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University before finishing an MS in mechanical engineering at Oakland University while working full time at the auto company Stellantis. Since beginning her career in 2017 — at what was then Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before becoming Stellantis following a merger with Groupe PSA in 2021 — White has held a series of demanding positions, including her current role of torque security calibration engineer, while also working on the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV program. She has also garnered numerous awards in vehicle testing and analysis, and achievements, including being nominated for Stellantis’ Leaders Embracing All Diversity (LEAD) Leadership Program in 2022. She now serves as a board member for that program.
“Being a part of AISES helped me see there are so many Native students in STEM. But it can feel like you’re the only one, and I want to show students they are not alone.”
But White has traveled anything but a straight line to academic and career success. A member of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, she grew up in both Indigenous and predominantly white communities, where she attended school. “I did deal a lot with racism,” recalls White. “People were like, oh, wow, Aurora is really good at school. School was all I had because I didn’t have many friends outside of my family.”
Loneliness wasn’t the only reason White was so focused on academic achievement. At times during her childhood, White experienced homelessness as her mother struggled to provide for her and her three siblings. In fact, White remembers vowing to herself at seven years old that she would be a success in academics in order to build a more secure future. “I don’t want to shame my mom for the way I grew up,” White says. “I think that experience gave me the drive to say, OK, I don’t want this for my future. I want to be able to provide for myself and for any future children.”
Though finances were difficult at times, White’s academic drive was supported by strong family relationships and her Native culture. White’s three older siblings relished teaching and challenging her with math and science topics long before she began studying them in school. White also benefited from a natural aptitude for all things mechanical. When her family needed a piece of furniture built, she was the one to do it.
Her mother began taking her to powwows when White was five years old. “That was the starting point of learning about our culture and who we are,” White says. “That’s when we started hearing teachings like caring for Mother Earth to our fullest capabilities. When I think about going to powwows, I think about how that really helped me get through difficult experiences, because without it, I didn’t know why I was different from everybody else.”
White’s connection to other Native students also helped her build an important sense of community and support while she was in college. At Michigan Technological University, for example, she became secretary and president of the school’s AISES chapter and brought back the annual campus powwow as well as offered opportunities like moccasin and dream catcher workshops to promote understanding of Native culture.
Today, White works hard to raise awareness about Indigenous people and culture within Stellantis and helps the company recruit Native students at the AISES National Conference and other events. “Being a part of AISES helped me see there are so many Native students in STEM,” she says. “But it can feel like you’re the only one, and I want to show students they are not alone.”
She is also one of the leaders of the Indigenous Cultural Opportunity Network (ICON) business resource group at Stellantis. White heads up the culture and career aspects of ICON, and also serves as the group’s treasurer. Her work with the group involves coordinating events for members and for employee awareness, including hosting Anishinaabe language lunch and learns, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives awareness through a virtual 5K, and STEM outreach, along with many other activities.
White’s culture also guides her own career aspirations. The foundational belief about the importance of caring for Mother Earth has driven White’s interest in electric transportation, widely regarded as a key solution to the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. “A lot of the automotive industry is going that way and we need expertise,” White says. “I want to be a technical expert and the go-to person for people at the company to answer questions about how it works.”