I have been on one type of governing board or another ever since 1988 when I was appointed to Little Hoop's College Board of Regents (now known as Cankdeska Cikanna Community College). Over the years, I served on many different governing boards alongside many tribal members.
Each board I served on was unique as each was made up of individuals from all walks of life. Some board members were elders, others were college educated, some were unemployed and others had a long history of work.
Currently, I am serving on the Fort Totten Public School District #30 School Board. I was elected to this board six years ago, and re-elected three years ago. For the past six years, the make-up of this board pretty much resembled the other boards that I served on. This changed at our January 2010 regular school board meeting. A change that I would call historic.
Due to a resignation by a school board member last month, we (the school board) appointed another tribal member to serve in his place. This tribal member was Dr. Russ McDonald. Russ showed up for his first meeting on December 6, 2010. As the meeting progressed, the realization dawned on me that for the first time in the history of our reservation, three individuals with doctorate degrees were on the same board, two were regular board members (Russ and I), and the other one was Dr. Wayne Trottier, our superintendent. The superintendant serves as an ex-officio of the board. Wayne Trottier, although enrolled in Standing Rock, was born and raised on Spirit Lake Nation.
An ex officio member is a member of a body (a board, committee, council, etc.) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office.
I am currently writing a course on Tribal Governing Boards, and one of the things I point out in my course is that we Indians have become familiar with governing boards only within the last 30 - 40 years or so.
As I sat looking around the room as the meeting progressed, I realized how far we have come in a short time. Thirty - forty years ago, many of us Indian people never sat or maybe never heard about a board. Now, 30 "short" years later, we have two tribal members who have doctorate degrees on the same board along with a third board member from a different reservation holding a doctorate.
It is not my intent to downplay the importance of board members who don't have a college degree. On the contrary, I strongly believe that governing boards need members from all walks of life, especially those board members who have a rich life experience in areas other than education. In my opinion, a good board of education has a mix of educators, parents, grandparents, and members from the working force, from entry level-positions to CEO positions.
I am a strong believer in education, that we need more tribal members with college degrees, and I also believe that the majority of the administrative positions on the reservation should be filled with tribal members who have obtained a college degree. Therefore, I am hoping the composition of our board sends a message to our students that obtaining a doctorate degree is not out of their reach. And once they obtain a doctorate degree, I hope they decide to come back home and give back to our community by electing to serve on one of the many governing boards here on the rez.
