For nearly 50 years, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe has employed young Southern Ute tribal members, and more recently first descendants, in various departments and divisions each summer season. Now known as the Youth Employee Program – the program gives youth the opportunity to gain insight into the Tribal organization operations while developing interviewing skills, resume writing, and hands-on job experience.  

Originally titled the Youth Job Conservation, the programing gave young Tribal members the opportunity to work offsite Tribal Campus in roles such as fencing, lifeguarding, umpiring, working in Sky Ute Downs, or in Wildlife working at Lake Capote or Scott’s Pond. The Youth Job Conservation was renamed to Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) under the Southern Ute Community Actions Program or SUCAP in the early 2000’s. The program is now known as the Youth Employment Program (YEP) since 2013 and offers positions onsite for youth within the Tribe. Under the leadership of Chairman Christine Sage in 2017, that the program opened eligibility to first descendant applicants as well.  

Dustin Weaver has been the YEP Coordinator since 2019, overseeing the program and offering guidance to youth who have an interest in applying. “The Youth Employment Program is the program under the Southern Ute Indian Tribe housed in Southern Ute Education Department in the Public Education division – [the program] was put in place to give tribal members and now first descendants a real world experience in job hunting, job application, interviewing, and professional development,” Weaver said.  

This past YEP season, the program helped to employee 31 students with many returning to their previously served positions; like others who have worked in one job site for their duration as a YEP employee, Andres Richards was identified as a YEP employee who excelled over the years and now hopes to pursue a career in the legal field. “A big success story I can talk about is Andres Richards, who is the student that has been working in the Southern Ute Legal Department, in the Permanent Fund for the last three years straight,” Weaver said. “Andres [Richards] graduated this past May and is seeking to work in the legal field, he wanted to become a lawyer or judge, so we placed him in Legal to help him move forward.”  

“We had other students that were also asked to come back to departments because of their hard work skills,” Weaver said. “Phillip Velasquez was at the [Sky Ute Fairgrounds] for his second year, and Haiden Valdez was in her second year in the Finance Department – Preston Abeyta is one of our first descendants who came from Texas and he completed his third year in the Wildlife Division.”  

In an effort to offer more job experience, this year YEP employees completed an interviewing and hiring process, mandatory orientation, and attended the Jimmy Newton Jr. Youth Leadership Conference on Monday, July 27. While in attendance at the conference, YEP employees engaged in leadership themed breakout sessions, heard from motivational speaker Jake Danielson, healthy cooking lessons and more (see Issue No. 16 of the SU Drum).  

Each year, young Southern Ute tribal members and first descendants dedicate their summer break to developing their job skills by working for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Their dedication to learning and working aids many departments and divisions within the Tribe. Each YEP is celebrated for their assistance to every job site. Next summer, the Youth Employee Program will be in full swing, for more information please contact Youth Employment & Advisory Council Coordinator, Dustin Weaver at dweaver@southernute-nsn.gov.