Art: Nat Damm
Valerie Martinez
Executive Director, Indigenous People’s Green Jobs Coalition
Minneapolis, Minn.
Valerie Martinez, a 31-year-old Mexican/Cree/Apache/Ojibwe woman, spreads the benefits of the green economy to American-Indian communities in Minnesota through the Indigenous People’s Green Jobs Coalition. She’s also working with urban-ag pioneer Will Allen to bring small-scale sustainable food production to Little Earth of United Tribes, an affordable-housing community for Native Americans in south Minneapolis.
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ambessa_cantave.gif?quality=75&strip=all&w=300)