Duane Matt is a member of the Confederated Salish Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille Tribes, located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. Mr. Matt currently works as a physical scientist/technical project officer for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy. He formerly worked as the solid minerals branch manager for the Division of Energy and Mineral Development (DEMD) in Lakewood, Colorado. Mr. Matt has also worked as both a reclamation specialist and technology coordinator with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in Denver, Colorado. Both DEMD and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement are part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Before working for DEMD, Mr. Matt worked for the Bureau of Land Management (initial attack fire dispatcher), Scientific Applications International Corporation (field geologist), the Bureau of Reclamation (geological intern), U.S. Department of Agriculture (smokejumper), the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (Minerals Department), and National Park Service (helitack/firefighter). He also worked as a schoolteacher on the Laguna-Acoma Reservation in New Mexico and holds a master’s degree in geology and a bachelor’s degree in both geology and English/secondary education. Mr. Matt was a member of the University of Montana cross-country and track and field teams from 1986–1990. He also possesses 6 years of experience coaching both boys’ and girls’ high school cross-country and track and field. Mr. Matt is a founding board member of the Society of American Indian Government Employees and a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.