Some times local indigenous people and rural others transcend schooling and education. WW II proved it in Alaska when the military recruited Alaskan Natives and white rural trappers, hunters, fishermen and others with backwoods abilities. This was the first line in defense against Japanese who were first caught in 1922  making maps of Alaska in preparation for a future war. These rural locals and transplants or local  whites had the skills and survival ability to teach  the military how to first survive, then to scout (Marston) for pre-invasion incursions from the Japanese.

Why not now and if it employs locals,  so much the better
, the lower 48 is full of bases and military industrial complex facilities employing millions on the tax payers dime.