Tribal Leaders Institute

A service of Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc.

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The Tribal Leaders Institute (TLI) has two goals:

1. Provide character education that will decrease funds lost by tribal programs through ethical violations, and
2. Galvanize tribal members to demand ethical behavior from their leaders and themselves. What makes SLC’s ethics workshops unique? Our training is based on traditional Native American values of honesty, courage, perseverance, and generosity. We focus not on theory but on leading by example.

"Among the Dakotas lying and stealing from other tribal members was a capital offense. A person who was capable of lying was believed to be capable of committing other cowardly crimes against the tribe and was put to death to prevent the evil from doing more harm. If a person stole from another tribal member he was forever after called Wamanon (thief) and this distinction followed him for the rest of his life. " - Charles Eastman, Dakota 1858 – 1939

1. Introduction to Ethical Issues on Indian Reservations
This “introductory” course gives an overview of ethical issues on Indian Reservations today.

2. Courageous and Ethical Managers Managers need four basic functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling but even more they need four traditional values of courage, honesty, perseverance and generosity to guide them.

3. Becoming a Responsible Worker How values of courage, honesty, perseverance and generosity will help you become a valuable employee. (November, 2009)

4. Courageous and Ethical Governing Boards and Committees (January, 2010) Encourage governing board members to make courageous and ethical decisions.

5. Introduction to Tribal Governments (May, 2010) Courageous, ethical and responsible government.

Dr Longie’s Most Recent Entries

Everything changes over time This past weekend, we held our annual pow-wow. Tribal members who live off the reservation often come home to visit..

Acting Like a "White Man" A friend called me up a couple of weeks ago to ask me this question; how should he respond to tribal workers who accuse him of being a "White Man" when he tries to hold them accountable at work? ...

Visions From my Son: From one Dakota Parent to Another As many of you know, my son Joel, left us to go to the Spirit World several years ago, when he was seventeen years old. Over the years, I have met many parents who wanted ...

Vendettas Hurt Indian Country When I was growing up, I was very close to all my first cousins. We were close as brothers and sisters, and we always hung out together - something that I miss today. As we grew older, we drank a...

Tanyan wowunkdakapi (Dakota for good conversation) is our free, on-line discussion forum. Join tribal members from around the country to discuss:

• Reservation Ethics Reservation Ethics – discuss contemporary reservation ethics; the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• Ethics in the News Ethics in the News – Comment on and/or post links to news articles
• Ethics in History Ethics in History – Post examples of our ancestors highly ethical behavior and comment on them.
• Joe The Tribal Worker and Susie Sainte. Have your own Joe or Susie story? Share it here.

Dr Demars recent entries:

My biggest ethical challenge is the next five minutes The University of Michigan Business School requires students to write about their greatest ethical challenge ...

Them's Fightin' Words
When did it become acceptable to be a coward? In the Old West it was considered dishonorable not to show courage, but now we say, "You have to understand ..."

Your Personal Ethics
Ethics is personal. I asked Erich today, "Is it possible to be too ethical? Can companies use ethics training to exploit workers? For example, you talk a lot in the courses about working the hours you're paid to work, not taking...