Winds of Change - Fall 2017 - 33

Woods joined the newly formed company
as business development manager, and works
with CEO Clark Moseley, who brings 42 years
of experience in the mining industry. Moseley
holds a degree in mining engineering and is
an alumnus of the Harvard Business School's
Advanced Management Program.
"NTEC is an enterprise of the Navajo
Nation, and we have a board I answer to," says
Moseley. "We are a large
contributor to the revenue
stream for the Nation." In fact,
NTEC contributes approximately $35 million annually to
the Navajo Nation General Fund.
The company also oversees a Benefit
Fund. Local entities - Navajo projects and
nonprofits - can apply for grants. Some of
the money goes toward scholarships, and
some goes into making improvements in
the community.
Moseley sees economic growth for tribal
communities as well as job prospects for

An
aquaponic
system

in their minds. Before the tribe's removal
from Mississippi, it thrived thanks to its
strong farming and fishing skills. "Our tribe
knew that fish and nature work together in a
symbiotic relationship," says Kaben. "We feel
we're paying homage to our ancestors -
by raising food for our communities and
because we're providing for our tribal
community."
The company donated the first system it
built to a local school with a large enrollment of students with Choctaw heritage and
later built a system for an eastern Oklahoma
college that also has a large Choctaw
contingent among the student body.

aises.org

individuals in resource development.
"The mineral resources sphere has great
opportunities for Native American students,"
Moseley points out. "I haven't seen a lot of
Native Americans in that space. They can
bring back that expertise to their reservations
to help develop gas, coal, sand, and gravel."
To help promote the goal of engaging
more Native young people in the field,
Moseley says that while in the
past NTEC has been a corporate
sponsor of the AISES National
Conference, this year the
company is going to actually
bring students to the event. Woods can
personally endorse the effect attending the
National Conference can have on steering
young people to STEM. "Thinking back when
I was in high school," he says, "hearing some
people speak about leadership at a conference
helped us Native students become passionate
about engineering."
- Patty Talahongva

Today, while the company's customer
base is diversified, it continues to focus on
serving Native American tribes. The
company's longest-running system is with
the Seminole Nation, which has integrated
the system into its food distribution center.
When Symbiotic Aquaponic held a
ribbon-cutting ceremony there, Assistant
Chief Lewis Johnson said something that
stuck with Kaben. "All the food in the
distribution center is the government's
food," said Johnson. "But everything we
grow in our greenhouse is Seminole food."
Symbiotic Aquaponic is proud that it
provides for today while leaving for
tomorrow. Kaben once heard an Osage elder
give a speech about the seven generations. "I
had heard the phrase before and didn't quite
know what it meant," he recalls. "It has two
definitions. One is to make decisions now
that will benefit the next seven generations. I
liked the other definition more - take our
great-grandfathers' lessons and apply them
for the benefit of our great-grandchildren. A
lot of people have forgotten their grandfathers'
lessons, so aquaponics provides a way related
to culture and heritage to pay homage to our
family line and our tribe."
- G.S.

FALL 2017 * WINDS OF CHANGE 33
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Winds of Change - Fall 2017

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