Today, I am leaving for Bismarck, North Dakota to attend the 13th Annual Tribal Leaders Summit held at the Bismarck Civic Center. The Tribal Leaders Summit is part of a weeklong celebration held at United Tribes Technical and Training Center (UTTC) located just south of Bismarck. The celebration centers around the UTTC powwow, which draws in as many as 10,000 dancers, singers, and spectators who travel from all over Indian Country to attend this event.
The UTTC powwow is the biggest powwow in North Dakota, and many tribal people from North Dakota's four Indian reservations look forward to attending this annual event. Although the powwow does not start until Thursday, many powwow people leave for Bismarck as early as Monday or Tuesday, probably to get a good spot to set up their tents. This leaves the villages here on Spirit Lake looking like ghost towns.
Those of us who will be attending workshops during powwow week will leave today or tomorrow depending upon what day the workshop starts. The Tribal Leaders Summit starts tomorrow and ends Thursday afternoon. Many other workshops start on a separate day but most of them end on Friday or Saturday morning.
It is a good time to see the tribal council members from the various tribes and hear them speak. In years past, I heard some really good oratory from the tribal leaders and other presenters. It is also a good chance to see old friends and meet new ones. One might say, it is a good time to catch up on all the gossip. Sadly, every year I hear of some acquaintance that passed away or is in ill health. Fortunately, there is much more good news than there is bad news.
I plan to take my laptop with me wherever I go so I can show the Tribal Leaders Institute (TLI) to interested individuals. Last year, many people I talked to about the TLI were interested, however, TLI was just starting and I had nothing concrete to show them. This year, I will be able to show them the two courses I developed (Introduction to Ethical Issues on Indian Reservations and Managers and Traditional Native American Values, a course on courageous and ethical management).
Now that I have two courses completed, I am hoping some tribal leaders (council members, administrators, supervisors, etc.) will do more then just compliment me for addressing a tough issue that no one else wants to address, but be willing to retain my services to conduct my course on their reservation. Based on the feedback I received from over 100 tribal members who have taken my courses thus far, tribal leaders who solicit my services will not be disappointed.
