As STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers take on increasingly important roles in society, experts agree that it is vital to ensure that growth within affiliated industries is equitable and representative of those it impacts — namely, everyone.

Accounting for a pantheon of disciplines, including astrophysics, biology, and computer engineering, to name a few, STEM fields cover a myriad of subjects and professions. Unfortunately, that level of diversity does not translate to the personnel working within those fields, and while nearly all marginalized racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. are underrepresented in the sciences, Native and Indigenous peoples make up only a fraction of 1% of those working in these high-paying, future-driving STEM careers.

Even with an incremental increase of 0.2% regarding Native and Indigenous representation in the STEM workforce since 2011, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) peoples still only hold approximately 200,000 out of 34.9 million STEM jobs, despite accounting for nearly 1.35 million of the total workforce, according to the 2023 report “Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities” by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) — a data research arm of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Representation slips even further when considering that Native peoples fill just over 30,000 science and engineering (S&E) roles — NCSES designated occupations with higher salaries and typically require at least a four-year degree — within the larger STEM labor market, which accounts for nearly 35 million people.

This is reflected in the fact that AIAN STEM workers, along with their Hispanic or Latinx and Black colleagues, had lower median earnings than White or Asian employees — groups that proportionally have higher rates of S&E employment, at 22% and 52% respectively. On average, the median salary of S&E personnel is an additional $40,000 annually compared to those in middle-skill STEM jobs, which is more often a role occupied by Native employees.

Similar trends are also present among STEM degree recipients. Despite being marginally overrepresented among associate’s degree earners, AIAN learners represented only 0.4% of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral graduates. This means that only about 33% of Indigenous STEM workers have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Cultivating Growth from Within

Armed with these alarming statistics, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is one of the key organizations fighting to improve Indigenous STEM representation. A nonprofit network of nearly 7,300 Native students and professionals, AISES comprises 470 university, tribal, K-12 affiliate, and professional chapters that represent more than 500 tribes throughout the U.S. and Canada. As of 2023, about 51% of AISES members were college students.

The Full-Circle Mentorship Program — managed by Johnny Poolaw, PhD, director of student success for AISES, himself a Delaware Nation citizen and descendent of Chiricahua Apache, Comanche, Kiowa Nations — pairs students with volunteer mentors, facilitating monthly talking circles where participants share career advice, experiences, and successes. These sessions create a supportive community, helping mentees navigate their career paths. Approximately 1,500 students benefit from the one-on-one relationships each year, which provide the personalized guidance Poolaw believes is crucial for career development and student success.

“As our world becomes more advanced with technology and science, and our tribal nations continue to grow and flourish, our Indigenous students must understand how and why a STEM career can not only provide [them with] an amazing career but can also allow [them] to give back to [their] communities and our world,” Poolaw says.

The society’s Student Success Program, another effort led by Poolaw, offers a series of monthly webinars focused on college and career readiness. They introduce students to the vast array of careers in STEM, helping inform those who are undecided about their future paths. The program aims to increase the visibility of Indigenous STEM professionals for prospective students, which can empower them to pursue a similar path, says Poolaw.

In addition to its programming, AISES has developed a number of other resources, including an emergency scholarship and the “College and Career Guide,” designed to prepare and help Indigenous students successfully navigate their college and career journeys. Showcasing valuable insights from Indigenous graduates, professionals, and other AIAN STEM students, the guidebook offers practical tips and essential college advice to ease the transition into higher education and beyond.

“As Indigenous people, we come from a long line of scientists,” Sarah EchoHawk, AISES president and Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma citizen, wrote in the guidebook. “Our ancestors were the first people on these lands to study our stars, our plants, our animal relatives, and so much more. Our ancestors loved our land, water, plants, and sky and fought hard battles so that we could continue our culture of caring for our Mother Earth. As contemporary Indigenous students and professionals, we must sustain our traditional culture so we can thrive as tribal people in our modern world.”

The guide provides a comprehensive list of STEM careers and describes what a person in each role does and how it can be leveraged to help tribal communities. It also presents high school students with a detailed checklist that helps them map out their college careers by providing information on different types of institutions, scholarships and financial aid resources, and tips to excel academically once enrolled.

These resources are critical given that Indigenous students face unique challenges, such as underrepresentation, financial barriers, and cultural differences in predominantly White learning environments, says Poolaw.

“Since the representation of Natives in the STEM field is very small, not only are they going to be the only ones, most likely, on their campus, but they’re also not going to see that representation of faculty,” he says. “They’re not going to have the leaders of the institutions look like them. That can also be challenging too. Especially for Indigenous ways of knowing and ways of learning.”

Federal Funding

As the leading STEM-focused agency in the U.S., the NSF is uniquely positioned to bolster Native participation within the industry. Its primary means of doing so is through the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP), which provides grants to federally recognized tribal colleges, universities, and eligible Alaska Native- and Native Hawaiianserving institutions. TCUP’s main goal is to enhance the quality and scope of STEM education and research at these institutions, ultimately increasing AIAN representation in related careers.

TCUP supports a range of transformative projects, including efforts to improve institutional STEM education and research capacity, achieve specific short-term goals to enhance science education quality, and fund individual faculty members’ scholarly activities. Additionally, TCUP fosters collaborations between tribal and nontribal institutions and supports projects that integrate STEM capacity with community needs.

“Since their founding, [Tribal Colleges and Universities] have provided their communities with essential services,” the TCUP program description reads. “They are the hub of STEM teaching, STEM research, and STEM education research that is important to Native communities, including environmental quality and food sovereignty. They are the focal points for STEM and are resources for tribal governments for environmental, technological, economic, and educational policy matters.”

The program also focuses on enhancing the science content knowledge and teaching expertise of K-12 educators in tribal communities and upgrading necessary infrastructure for STEM research and education. Collectively, these initiatives aim to bridge the gap in representation — particularly between two- and four-year degree programs — and empower Native American communities.

Other NSF programs, such as Advancing Informal STEM Learning and the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES initiative, also support tribal-led projects and proposals, further promoting equity and inclusion in STEM education and research.

Institutional Support

In addition to the roles that the NSF and organizations like AISES play in promoting greater AIAN participation in STEM, numerous individual colleges and universities oversee efforts to do so on their campuses and in local communities, particularly in states with large tribal populations.

For example, the University of Colorado Boulder recently launched the Intentional Mentorship Program for Native American & Indigenous Graduate Students in STEM, which helps guide Native learners throughout their graduate education to expand career and research opportunities. A collaboration between the STEM Routes graduate mentorship program and the Center for Native American & Indigenous Studies, the initiative features a cluster-based mentorship model, grouping multiple faculty and students to better support diverse experiences and backgrounds.

“Studies on best practices done by STEM Routes emphasize multiple mentors may be needed for each student — a fellow grad student for example, a discipline-specific mentor, and perhaps a faculty cultural or ethnic model — and thus cohort models may be more effective,” the funding proposal for the program reads. “Recent work on diversity argues that mentors specifically in one’s field, who have high institutional influence, can be as important or more important than fellow underrepresented minority mentors in diversifying the higher ranks of institutions.”

It aims to build a supportive community that offers emotional, psychological, and career guidance, while also empowering students through peer mentorship. Regular surveys gather feedback to refine the program and demonstrate its effectiveness.

Similar in its mission, Indigenous Research and STEM Education at the University of Montana (UM) supports a variety of programs, including professional development and career workshops, scholarships, and research opportunities to increase AIAN involvement.

One such initiative is the Montana American Indian in Math and Science (MT AIMS) program, a collaboration between UM and the Native American Research and Education Foundation. The program’s long-term goal is to provide Indigenous students with highlevel, continuous STEM education from middle school through high school. This is primarily done through weeklong summer events in which students participate in numerous hands-on learning experiences.

“We’re trying to create opportunities for our Native students, especially those here in Montana, [who] may not get the same opportunities as other students might get especially in larger, more urban communities,” says Aaron Thomas, PhD, a chemical engineering professor at UM and director of MT AIMS. “The real hope is that they take that information back into their community and work within their own people.”

Another effort is the Native American Science & Engineering Program (NASEP) at the University of Arizona, an NSF-funded yearlong initiative aimed at inspiring Indigenous high school students to pursue careers in STEM fields. The program connects students with academic and industry professionals and encourages them to complete courses in chemistry, physics, and precalculus before graduation.

Participants receive one-on-one college preparation coaching, build computers, attend interactive workshops, and engage in family events to prepare for college admissions and explore STEM careers. NASEP starts with a summer session and continues throughout the year using various communication channels to offer college and scholarship advice, as well as conference attendance and networking opportunities with STEM professionals.

As the need for diversity and equity in the sciences becomes increasingly critical, programs that bolster Native and Indigenous participation in these disciplines are gaining momentum. The combined efforts of nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and colleges and universities exemplify a multifaceted approach to addressing this challenge.

These initiatives not only provide educational and professional opportunities for Indigenous students but also work to create supportive, culturally sensitive environments that empower them to succeed. By fostering greater representation, these programs seek to bridge existing gaps and ensure that the benefits of STEM advancements are inclusive of all communities, ultimately enriching the field with diverse perspectives and talents.●