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TRIBAL LEADERS INSTITUTEA service of Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. |
Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. Research Basis for the Tribal Leaders Institute
As a consulting company based on the reservation, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. has a unique insight into the root of the problem. Until President Johnson’s war on poverty, there was no real money in Indian country. No one wanted to be on the tribal council because there was no personal benefit in it, and it was a lot of work. Tribal council members received no training, no orientation, and this situation continued to permeate most tribal administrations up to today. But now, money is coming into Indian country. Many individuals are catapulted by an election from poverty into a position of prestige, power, and relative wealth. Once elected or hired to a position, many tribal leaders frequently develop a sense of entitlement, are not encouraged to think for themselves, and rarely face consequences for acting irresponsibly. Even those who have a relatively high level of moral reasoning often believe they can get away with anything. When tribal members do have to pay for their mistakes, they often blame other persons for getting caught.
During Phase I, Tribal Leaders with Character (TLC), of our development of ethics training, while still under development, the Ethics forum received 4,500 visits in three months. In short order, the number of monthly visits to our website increased from less than 10,000 to over 35,000. We expect with Phase II, the Tribal Leaders Institute (TLI), visitors to our Phase I product alone will increase to 50,000 per month within the next six months. We believe visitors to the website as a whole will increase to 100,000.
Also, the number of posts on our website from tribal members has been increasing as credibility has been established and it is evident that anonymous posting truly is anonymous. A recent effort made to overcome this obstacle people have to posting has been the creation of a completely unethical prototype worker named, “Joe, the Tribal Worker.” As our first forum post states …
Joe appears to have supernatural powers. He seems to be working at several jobs at the same time, and I know I met him at each reservation I visited. If you know a Joe, why don’t you share his escapades with us via this forum?
This fictitious character is used as a literary device to reduce the concern that people have that they will be accused of pointing fingers at a specific council member or program manager when they post a message. In the first six weeks after “Joe” was developed, there were 14 posts and 574 visitors to the Joe, the Tribal Worker, topic.
Based on the successful pilot of the Ethics forum, we have created an expanded Tribal Leaders Council forum named "Tanyan wowunkdakapi" (Dakota for good conversation). We are adding new features to the website monthly. Those planned or in process include:
- Community - free community services provided include a tribal ethics wiki, reading room with newsletters and virtual field trips .
- Virtual Library - we know that reservation communities have very few libraries or bookstores. Where do you find information on ethics in general, on reservations? Right here! Thousands of pages are available for download and it is all free. This is also where you'll find Dr. Longie's podcasts on tribal ethics.
- Electronic Filing Cabinet - where do you get samples of attendance policies, letters to explain the termination of a board member,
Back to the Tribal Leaders Institute … Our first course under the Tribal Leaders Institute, Introduction to Ethics, is finished. Since we are in the testing phase right now, we need some volunteers to take the course. These first classes will be FREE. In fact, we will pay you $25 to take the course and tell us what you think. You must be a tribal employee, board member or policy council member to qualify. Don’t miss this opportunity. Sign up now. Classes start December 6, 2008.