Every now and then, I get somewhat discouraged because people are not knocking down my door wanting to hire me to conduct my ethics courses. But stories about unethical stories keep pouring in, mainly about the abuse of power by tribal administrators, tribal board members, and tribal council members.
For example, there was a recall hearing on a tribal council member yesterday. Apparently, a lot of people showed up. I didn't go because I overslept. It turns out it would have made no difference if I did go because the tribal chairperson refused to let the tribal members vote on the recall.
As I said, I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what happened. What I do know is that elected officials serve at the will of the people, not at the will of other tribal council members. If the people want to vote to remove them, they simply have to get enough people to sign a recall petition, turn it in, and it is the tribal chair's responsibility to hold a vote - not to decide whether or not there is a sufficient reason(s) to hold a recall vote.
Now, if people were appointed to the council, then the rest of the council would have the legal and moral authority to remove another council member. But, like I said, the people elect council members, and only they have the authority to remove or keep them. For whatever reason, our tribal chair refused to allow a recall vote, thereby disenfranchising tribal members of their right to recall an elected official.
Years ago, when I was on the Law and Order Committee, in response to a question, I stood up in front of the General Assembly and said, "We do not have law and order on this reservation. We have people who are being picked up for DUI, drunk and disorderly conduct, etc., but we do not follow and/or enforce our own laws." If what I heard yesterday is to be believed, we did not follow our tribal constitution on the recall process - hence no law and order.
Then there are still the usual on-going stories about tribal workers not showing up for work and falsifying timesheets, etc. However, just when I was totally discouraged that the Tribal Leaders Institute was not making any head way, I got a couple of phone calls that changed my mind.
The first phone call was from a young lady here on Spirit Lake. She told me about how she and several of her young friends sat up late one night last week talking about the lack of ethics among Spirit Lake tribal workers; and they meant everyone, from the janitor to the tribal council. They had a plan, sort of, for how they wanted to change things. I listened to her and gave her some advice, some of which was to take my course, Introduction to Ethical Issues On Indian Reservations. I surely hope she (they) follow up on their concerns.
The second phone call was from a tribal member from another reservation. He has been reading my blogs and decided to not only seek my advice, but to have me come down to his rez and help him and a group of people get organized to stop the unethical behavior on their reservation. I explained to him I do not get involved in other reservations' politics, but if he and his group would take my introductory course on ethics, they would learn all they need to know about how to make positive changes on their reservation. He said he would get back to me in a couple of days.
These two phone calls reminded me of another phone call I received a couple of weeks ago. A BIA line officer is going to hire me to train many of her employees, board members, and hopefully a few tribal council members on ethical workplace behavior. There will be two other presenters assisting me at this training.
Maybe the Tribal Leaders Institute is having more success then I thought. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
