Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. research on Reservation Ethics
Dr. Erich Longie, Co-author of this course, was born and raised on the Spirit Lake Reservation, he also served in leadership positions for the past twenty-years. But don't take his word on whether or not there are ethical issues on reservations.
In preparation of this course Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. (SLC) conducted a community survey of a broad spectrum of tribal leaders across four reservations in two states. This was supplemented by a nationwide email survey. The depth of responses across both sources amazed us.
Respondents were asked,
“List five most common major/minor ethical infractions and the frequency (all the time, once in a while, very seldom) you believe they occur on Indian Reservations.”
The below are not a selected sample of the comments. All of the comments we received, from the casino General Manager to a former tribal council representative to tribal administrators echoed the same sentiments.
♣“Don’t get me started. I could not limit myself to five, here are the eight biggest issues. “
♣“Selecting relatives for various resources such as housing, contracts, scholarships, governing boards, land, charity, and education. All the time.”
♣“Tribal employees should have a job standard to abide by such as:
-not beating up your boss or co-workers.
- reprimanded for getting a DUI (especially if you are the IHS wellness director).
♣“Also, if you are fired for any of the above items, the employee should not be able to be hired in another tribal position for limited amount of time. I personally know of an employee who beat up her boss at the tribal college ... She was hired within the week at the tribal administration office.”
♣“Abuse of work privileges - doing personal tasks while getting paid to (work) “
♣“Abuse of work hours - going to work late or leaving earlier. All the time.”
Many listed more than five. The overwhelming majority of respondents said that these infractions occurred “all the time”.