Celebrating Women In Energy: Salina Derichsweiler and “A Closely Held Human Value”
Salina Derichsweiler, the Director of Development at SunShare, is a member of the Iñupiaq group of Indigenous people (the name “Iñupiaq,” meaning “real or genuine person”.
With the recent release of the Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon (based on David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name), all eyes are riveted on the story of the Osage people of Oklahoma and the history behind what was known as the Reign of Terror, the horrific and heartbreaking fight over the Tribe’s oil wealth. (It has been widely reported that, at one time, the Osage were the richest people, per capita, in the world, with the Osage Nation itself saying its people were “one of the wealthiest groups.”)
And, while the exploration and production of oil and gas in Osage Territory provided, and still provides, jobs for some of the Osage people, Indigenous people – American Indian or Alaska Native – make up about only two percent of workers in the petroleum fuels sector, according to the 2020 U.S. Energy and Employment Report.
Salina Derichsweiler, the Director of Development at SunShare, is a member of the Iñupiaq group of Indigenous people (the name “Iñupiaq,” meaning “real or genuine person” – inuk “person” plus -piaq “real, genuine”).1 Her 20-plus year career in energy has encompassed the full spectrum from oil and gas to entrepreneurship and now, “I’m at a new place in life where I’m really happy with where I am and what I’m doing,” – in the renewables sector, specifically solar energy.
Describing herself as a storyteller and saying she is excited to share her story, Derichsweiler is quick to point out that Indigenous people are “not a monolith” and that she speaks for herself.
“I’m happy to share my views and what I’ve experienced and how I’ve navigated these spaces, especially as I have really entered that Tribal energy sovereignty space and renewable energy, and what it means to move from oil and gas over to renewable spaces.”
Nature Versus Nurture
In order to tell her story, Derichsweiler feels it is important to share some background information on her family of origin and the generational trauma it has experienced. Her maternal grandmother was originally from the Alaskan Native village of Kiana and was a survivor of forced assimilation and residential schools. Derichsweiler remembers her mother telling her how her grandmother’s hair had been cut and she had been forbidden to speak the Native language or practice traditional aspects of Iñupiaq culture. “It was just a really painful experience,” she says, and one that had a ripple effect for generations to come.
Despite assimilation and relocation efforts by the U.S. government again after World War II, her maternal grandfather, who was Irish by descent and had served in the Air Force, moved her grandmother and their young family to Colorado, where they lived in poverty.
“There’s a lot of domestic violence, and substance and alcohol abuse, in our family that passed down [through the generations]. My parents each had their own traumatic childhoods and that was something that was very impactful to me, [especially] as the oldest of four children. Like a lot of families, we faced significant poverty and that comes with food and energy insecurity. I really wanted out of that whole system.”
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Feature and interview by Rebecca Ponton has been a journalist for 25+ years and is also a petroleum landman. She is the Editor of OilWoman Magazine.