Indigenous Workforce & Energy Sovereignty | Dylan Aubrey at California Energy Commission Summit

At the California Energy Commission statewide summit, leaders from across Indian Country came together to address one of the biggest gaps in infrastructure development: Indigenous workforce participation, ownership, and long-term economic sovereignty.

In this powerful panel, Dylan Aubrey (Founder of the Tribal Workforce Trade Association & Drum Circle News) breaks down how workforce development is not just about training—it’s about building pipelines that start at the planning phase and lead to ownership in multi-million dollar infrastructure projects.

Key topics covered in this discussion:
• Why tribes are often excluded from early-stage project funding and planning
• The need for Indigenous inclusion in construction standards (CSI MasterFormat)
• Building long-term career pipelines vs. short-term job placement
• Performance bond programs and scaling Native contractors from small business to prime contractors
• Workforce shortages in the energy sector and the need for tribal partnerships
• Reestablishing Indigenous trade routes and cross-border workforce collaboration
• The role of policy, unions, and strategic partnerships in scaling Indigenous capacity

This conversation goes beyond workforce—it’s about sovereignty, ownership, and restructuring systems that were never built to include Indigenous people.

“We are not here for participation. We are here for ownership.”

This is a call to action for tribes, agencies, contractors, and developers to rethink how infrastructure is built—and who it’s built for.

Written by Drum Circle News