Barriers for Native Americans interested in lucrative tech jobs.

I'm David Brancaccio on a Thanksgiving morning.

Let's start with a recent report from the K-Pore Foundation and the American Indian Science and

Engineering Society that looks at indigenous workers in tech. It's a group that is

seriously underrepresented in that sector that can pay high wages and the barriers to entry start early.

Marketplace's Savannah-Marr reports.

Over the last four years, Wyoming Indian High School on the Wind River Reservation has been building a computer science program from scratch.

Now teacher Richard Wynne says his students can earn college credit, professional certifications.

One student has talked to the Marines and she is planning to go Marine Corps for

Cybersecurity.

Two students in my tech squad have asked for recommendations for

colleges because they want to go into computer maintenance.

Wynne says his students are learning skills that set them up for high paying jobs.

And in that sense, this program is filling an important gap.

One that exists across the country, says Tiffany Smith,

with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. she co-authored the report.

From what our data showed, only about 59% of indigenous students attend to school offering a

computer science course.

And that goes down to a glaring 20% when you're looking at only high

schools on reservations. And the lack of a K through 12 foundation makes it hard for

Native people to do well in college computer science programs or break into

tech professions.

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