“Working In Indian Country: Building Successful Business Relationships with American Indian Tribes” is scheduled for a second printing next month.  A new chapter has been added and is titled “Consultation:  What You Must Know About This Vital Legal Obligation.” The following is an excerpt from this new chapter.

“What Consultation is…

The Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Federal Agency Historic Preservation Programs Pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act, Federal Register, 24 April 1998, states,

Consultation means the process of seeking, discussing, and considering the views of others, and, where feasible, seeking agreement with them on how historic properties should be identified, considered, and managed.

Although this definition relates to the National Historic Preservation Act it is applicable to any consultation involving any situation.  I like the wording about “seeking, discussing, and considering the views of others…” as this really focuses on what consultation is about.  None of the scenarios in the list above accomplish this end.

Robert Thrower, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer from the Poarch Creek Band of Indians in Alabama, puts it this way,

I think you can teach people everything they need to know about consultation. It is the building of an on-going relationship and that’s the key word, relationship.  I don’t consider a relationship as just sitting here talking about what we have to do and going through the motions and making x number of meetings.  I consider relationships [as] getting to know each other.

What consultation is not…

• Stating that the problem is solved and here is the way it’s going to be
• Informing tribes about a decision without previous contact with the tribes
• Presenting an ultimatum to a tribe – “It’s going to be this way or else!”
• Mitigating a tribe’s concerns on a project or proposal
• Sending a letter asking for comment on a project or proposal
• Briefing a tribe on a project or proposal
• Requesting information from a tribe about a project or proposal
• Making a contact with a tribe and assuming they were not interested because they did not respond back within your timeframe
• Meeting with a tribe without a previously disclosed agenda
• Meeting when the participants are not previously informed about the project specifics, including the project scope and areas of potential impact

In a 1995 legal case, between the Pueblo of Sandia v. United States, the court stated that the agency “…did request information from the Sandia Pueblo and other local Indian tribes, but a mere request for information is not necessarily sufficient to constitute the ‘reasonable effort’ Section 106 requires.”  What Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires is consultation.  Many interpret this ruling to mean that a “good faith” effort to identify properties would have included consultation with the Pueblos beyond the initial letter and briefing.  Adequate consultation would have included seeking, discussing, and considering the views of the tribes in the matter…”

A portion of the proceeds from each sale of Working In Indian Country is being donated to the Association on American Indian Affairs, a very worthy non-profit organization dedicated to youth/education, health, cultural preservation, and empowerment of tribal communities in Indian country.  Check out AAIA’s web site at http://indian-affairs.org/.

I would like to present another perspective about American Indian history as told to me by numerous tribal officials and elders.  First, in the eyes of many American Indians, history is not a chronological record but rather a series of events that were experienced first hand by many of their grandparents and great grandparents.  It is what we would call “very close to home”.

Today, an American Indian’s memory might be fraught with broken  treaties, massacres of American Indian women and children, traditional land being taken for non-Indian settlement, removal of tribes hundreds and thousands of miles from their homelands, placement on reservations in inhumane conditions, diet changes resulting in long-term health issues, surrendering rights and freedoms, and so much more.  More importantly, they learned of these events through oral histories passed from generation to generation, not in the public school classroom or from a textbook.  Their ancestors, their great grandparents, most likely lived through these events directly.  Consequently, their memories are long and accurate, often going back centuries.

Tribal leaders and elders have provided me a diversity of opinions about American Indian history.  Some have told me that history is important and needs to be retold to remind government and business officials what the American Indian community has suffered through in order to avoid reoccurrence of the past.  In your dealings with tribes, you may be required to listen to tribal leaders articulate the linkages of past government and business actions, policies, and events toward American Indians which have led to the suspicious Indian community today.  Other tribal leaders will say history is in the past and we just need to move forward and focus on the future.  In either case, you need to understand how certain historical events have shaped these current attitudes.

I cannot put too fine a point on this.  The contrast in these viewpoints of history creates challenges for all of us who have a desire to work effectively in Indian country.  I hope you understand that our perspective of history and an American Indian’s perspective of history may be totally contrary to each other.  For example, you may look at the first contact between Natives and Europeans as an idealistic time of the first Thanksgiving or settlement of the West.  An American Indian may look at it as a time of tragedy and suppression.  The whole point is to help you develop trust with the specific tribe you’re working with.  As you understand history from the American Indian perspective, you are better prepared to avoid repeating those historical events, actions, and behaviors that can get in the way of building the desired working relationship.

You can learn more about how American Indian history affects your ability to build relationships and trust with tribes today in “Working in Indian Country: Building Successful Business Relationships with American Indian Tribes.” Go to our Book Overview Page to learn more.

Oh, how we look to our leaders – those that are visionary, motivate our organizations, and keep our compass pointed in the right direction.  Our list of prominent leaders like John F. Kennedy (putting a man on the moon by the end of the 60’s), Martin Luther King (his “I Have a Dream” speech), Theodore Roosevelt (the conservationist), or Crazy Horse (a warrior and his work on Indian affairs) comes to mind.  Yes, they were important visionaries, motivators, and molded the history of our country to what it has become today.

We tell ourselves that we could never be a leader like those famous people and have a significant impact in Indian country.  Let me build a fire and lighten the darkness of that thought by making two important points.  First, we need to rethink or redefine our perception of what leadership is and how it might apply to Indian country.  Second, any one of us can be a leader and significantly influence how others work and interact with American Indian tribes.  The fact is we need leaders at all levels in our society – not just those on the national or international stage.  When working in Indian country we need a leadership approach similar to, yet different from, what we read or learn in a classroom setting.  Let’s look at these points in detail.

I once interviewed Arthur “Butch” Blazer, the former State Forester from New Mexico and he made a very important point.  He said,

When I say leadership I’m referring more to that cultural understanding of how to effectively interact with tribal leadership.  It’s not something that’s that easy to do.

The “cultural understanding” Mr. Blazer refers to is so critical.  It’s because culture often defines how tribal governments operate, which in turn defines our business and leadership approach.  Only through understanding the culture, and in turn the tribal protocol, can we adjust our approach to effectively interact with American Indian tribes.

In his book, Leadership Without Easy Answers, (1994, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)  Ronald A. Heifetz, helps us understand how we can redefine leadership.  Heifetz states,

Rather than define leadership either as a position of authority in a social structure or as a personal set of characteristics, we may find it a great deal more useful to define leadership as an activity.  This allows for leadership from multiple positions in a social structure.  A President and a clerk can both lead.  It also allows for the use of a variety of abilities depending on the demands of the culture and situation.

In his definition, Heifetz makes two vital points that are applicable to working in Indian country.  First, leadership is a set of activities or skills that are adjusted to meet cultural situations.  Second, anyone can provide leadership despite his or her standing in an organization.  In other words, Heifetz’s idea of leadership is that it can be done by anyone in an organization and can be adjusted to fit any culture—internally to an organization or externally when dealing with different social cultures such as the American Indian community.

In my next article I will discuss what these activities and skills are and how we can apply them when working in Indian country.

In my previous article I discussed a new approach to leadership when working in Indian country.  It ended with a definition of leadership being a set of activities or skills that are adjusted to meet cultural situations.

The activities and skills that define a new approach to leadership when working in Indian country include many of those we often take for granted in our contemporary business environment yet have a distinctive culture style.  They include how we show respect, communicate, build and maintain relationships, and earn trust.  Each of these activities and skills are grounded in American Indian culture in a way that we must learn and practice to be successful in Indian country.

As an example of how we might adjust to these cultural situations, let’s start with how we show and display respect to a tribe or tribal official.  When we analyze the word respect—we find there are two very important words used to define respect: esteem and deference.  Esteem is “to feel or show admiration and deference toward somebody or something.”  Deference is “putting another person’s interest first” or “submitting to the judgment, opinion, or wishes of another person.”  As we take this a step further, the phrase “in deference to,” means “out of respect or courtesy to somebody or something.”

This leads us to the Platinum Rule that says, “Treat someone the way they wish to be treated, not how we want to be treated.”  If we apply the Platinum Rule to the word “respect,” the first thing we need to recognize is that tribes are sovereign entities – they are independent governments that define their own vision, future, and operational protocols.  Contrary to the contemporary definition of a leader where one provides vision, motivation, and direction, we in the non-Indian community cannot dictate or mandate a vision for a tribe, much less, tell them what they have to do the achieve that vision.  Not respecting sovereignty leads us to being condescending, patronizing, overbearing, and disrespectful to the recognition the American Indian community has fought long and hard for.  We must resist that burning urge to take control when things do not go as we think they should.

The challenges that face us on how we show and display respect to tribes and tribal leaders lean heavily towards honoring the cultural protocols they wish to operate under.  The list of protocols is long but some questions you might ask yourself include:  Are we really listening and hearing what tribal leaders have to say?  Do we know when and how to respond?  Do we ask questions rather than make firm statements about what might be best for them?  Are we willing to honor the spiritual protocols they might want to include?  Are we open to being tested?  Are we willing to shed our bureaucratic image?  Have we put aside our misperceptions and stereotypes and learned the facts about American Indians?  Do we understand the implications of body language and humor?  Are we willing to put in the time to build and nurture a relationship?  Are we willing to work on a timeframe that might be different from what you consider as typical?  Are we comfortable operating in a culturally different environment?

To sum it up, Eddie Tullis, past chairman of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama says,

Those people that come along and say, “I’ve got a million dollars to build an airport,” and I say, “Well the first thing, does it have to be on a reservation?” And they say, “Oh yeah, it has to be on a reservation.”  Well you don’t need to spend … time with me if you’re telling me [it has] to be on a reservation. I don’t care how much money you have because I [don’t have a] reservation to put it on. There’s no use in me taking up my time and my staff’s time trying to decide … If we could make those runways in a circle we might fit it on here. You’ve got to understand your customer and you’ve got to understand the reservation and all before you really start doing that … A lot of that is getting to know your customer, getting to establish that relationship.

So, develop these leadership activities and skills, get to know your customer, and educate yourself on the protocols that tribes wish to employ – basically treat them the way they wish to be treated!

To learn more about developing a new leadership perspective order your copy of  “Working In Indian Country”.