I have been in DC attending an Impact Aid conference. During one noon break, I had lunch with an Ojibwa woman from Minnesota. When professional Indian people get together and talk, the conversation sometimes turns to ethical issues in Indian Country. Like most Indians who live on a reservation, I am good at identifying unethical actions prevalent in the workplace on reservations, and like most people who talk about unethical issues, I have not had any real solution - until now. My company's Tribal Leaders With Character training program and the coming Tribal Leaders Institute workshops do offer a solution. However, to effectively address a problem, you have to understand the causes. With that in mind, here is what I told my companion.
When a free-roaming, freedom-loving people such as our ancestors are defeated militarily, and placed in the confines of a small space like a reservation, they lose much of who they are. We lost our customs and culture that kept peace and harmony in tribal villages. Alcoholism and other social ills have created a dysfunctional atmosphere that plagues us to this day. Lying, stealing, and cheating one another, which was unheard of 150 years ago, have become commonplace. Abuse of all kinds has begun to occur on a regular basis. Our ancestor's values of courage, honesty, perseverance, and generosity have been forgotten. However, early in the formation of reservations, most of these social ills had been confined within extended families.
Then in the 60s, President Lyndon Johnson declared his "war on poverty" that he called The Great Society, and federal funding began to trickle into the reservations. At first, other than creating a few more jobs, the impact was minimal. Even so, it did not take long for a few astute unethical individuals to realize the potential that would come from controlling this new source of funding.
Because our people knew nothing but poverty and paid no attention to unwanted government, they did not take notice of the early signs of corruption. By the time they began to sit up and take notice, the seeds of corruption were already well established in Indian Country. Unethical behavior soon became the norm, and would be passed down from generation to generation up until the present.
We have children who grew up learning how to lie, cheat, and steal to get their way, and to intimidate the few ethical people who were trying to stand up to them. What is the solution? We need tribal members and tribal leaders to act courageously and stand up and say, "We have had enough!" If one tribal council member or one tribal member would consistently speak up against unfair decisions in a courageous ethical manner, he/she would soon have support from other like-minded tribal members. When this happens, children will observe this courageous leadership and grow up practicing it.
