The Department of Labor announces $76 million in grants for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced on April 2 it would administer $76 million across roughly 163 grants to advance workplace readiness for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

Approximately $62 million will support employment training for adults, while the rest will fund programs that help develop academic and literacy skills for Native American youth. The DOL also said it will distribute additional grants to support year-round employment and job training for Native Americans ages 14–24.

“The Labor Department is supporting tribes and tribal entities as they engage with employers and educational institutions to increase the availability of high-quality career pathways,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “The Trump Administration remains committed to advancing the prosperity and well-being of all Tribal nations through opportunities to pursue stable, mortgage-paying careers.”

The money could prove impactful for the more than 9.7 million Native people in the US, who have historically faced hurdles to career advancement, including geographic barriers that may limit job opportunities for those living in rural areas like Alaska and Oklahoma, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Native people also have fewer educational opportunities than other racial groups and are the least likely to complete college, the EPI reported.

As a result, Native populations typically have higher unemployment and lower average wages than other racial groups, the EPI found.

“Indigenous individuals are not being given the opportunity to take on positions of higher power and pay,” Britnee Johnston, a member of the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance at the University of Arizona, told HR Brew previously. “They are modern day people. They work jobs. They provide for their families. They have job skills. They are educated. They’re living in houses. They live all across the country.”