So you may ask, what does this have to do with business and entrepreneurship?  Let me tell you.  On my route and in my neighborhood were Indian homeowners and the emerging Indian middle class.  More importantly, as I reflect today, there were a large number of Indian entrepreneurs who were taking risks, creating businesses, etc., in the hopes of creating wealth for their families and their community.  There was Pete Johnson of Johnson’s Glass, the Dalton family and their expanding apartment and real estate holdings, and even folks like the James family who owned their own fishing boats, employed crews (mostly family and other folks from the Indian community).  These folks and my daily interaction with them formed my early ideas of what was possible as an Indian person.  But there is a part that saddens me a bit in all of this.

What saddens me is that we have been remiss to capture these stories of our Indian entrepreneurs.  What was their motivation? How did their values and practices differ than other entrepreneurs in the community, etc.?

One of my favorite books about entrepreneurship is Lionel Sosa’s, “The Americano Dream: How Latinos Can Achieve Success in Business and in Life.”  It is a no nonsense book about Latinos who aspire to success in business and in life.  More importantly, he talks about ways in which Latino entrepreneurs can gain self-confidence and “transform your cultural heritage into an asset that can become a viable tool for success.”

Where is the “American Indian Dream” (Sueño de los Indios Americanos) book?  If we really want to encourage folks to continue to take risks and start wealth-creating businesses in Native communities, we need to begin sharing their stories – their ambitions, their successes, and yes, even their set-backs and failures.  Who are the entrepreneurs in your neighborhood and how can we get their stories about creating businesses and using their heritage and culture as an asset in business development?

“And then he did the same thing to the other Whos’ houses, leaving crumbs much too small for the other Whos’ mouses.”

I am sure that many of you recognize these famous words from Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but for Indian Country, Grinches have been stealing Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day and every other holiday and non-holiday for far too long.

Recently, First Nations released a report titled, Building Trust: Consumer Protection in Native Communities. The report highlights the role of consumer protection laws, a safety net enjoyed by the rest of the United States’ citizens, and that serve as important protections, including:

• Intended to maintain adequate protection and high ethical conduct in transactions related to business and financial services; and
• Statutes that govern sales and credit practices involving consumer goods and can include prohibition of deception, unconscionable dealings, or usury caps.

 But markedly missing in most reservation and tribal economies, the lack of consumer protections, opens up tribal citizens to financial abuses, including subprime lending, housing market collapse, abusive practices of predatory lenders, fraud and deception in loan transactions and a lack of access to mainstream banking services.

As we have pointed out in previous articles about the growth of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in reservation economies, the growth came about as a way to meet the real need for access to credit in reservation economies, where:

• 28.9% of American Indians and Alaska Natives are under banked; and
• 15.6% are unbanked.

And where banks and credit unions fear to tread, predators lick their lips. Previous studies by First Nations demonstrate that Native communities use Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) at higher rates than non-Native communities, and 71 percent of tribal leaders indicate that predatory lending is a problem in their communities.

In First Nations’ seminal report “Borrowed Time: Use of Refund Anticipation Loans Among EITC Filers in Native American Communities”, 10 states highlight that the cost of RALs and tax preparation fees stripped $22.8 million from already impoverished Indian communities.

In addition to combatting predatory lending and creating viable alternatives for capital, like CDFIs, in reservation economies, tribes can and have developed consumer protection laws to protect tribal citizens. For example, seven Native nations have passed consumer protection laws, leading to key tribal legislation that is an exercise of sovereignty and an expression that tribes take the protection of their citizens seriously.

Within the Building Trust report, First Nations made key policy recommendations for tribes that can help develop consumer protection laws, including:

Native leaders should consider jurisdictional issues and tribal infrastructure for enforcement;

• Native nations can offer access to alternative loan products;
• Native nations can collaborate with broader statewide activities; and
• Native nations can provide consumer and financial education.

It is past time for leaders and policy makers to put strong policies and practices in place to protect its citizenry. Don’t you think the time has come for Indian Country to quit accepting and fighting over the crumbs that are “much too small for the other Whos’ mouses?”

It is difficult to believe that it has been 15 years since First Nations Development Institute was able to get drafters of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) legislation to keep the Indian Country-specific language in the bill that President Clinton signed into law (language initially placed in the bill by Roger Boyd and the folks at the Navajo Nation).  The law set the wheels in motion for the creation of what is now First Nations Oweesta Corporation.

Before the signing of the legislation, the Oweesta program under First Nations coordinated industry-wide initiatives to increase the availability of capital, credit and financial services to reservation communities across the United States. 

And while the legislation signing was an important milestone, it was the First Nations Oweesta board of directors’ hiring of an entrepreneurial team 10 years ago that gave the newly formed subsidiary the zeal necessary for incredible growth. Native CDFIs have become an industry that not only works beside reservation communities to create institutions that provide access to ‘right-sized’ capital, but also do so much more. First Nations Oweesta provides both financial capital and technical assistance to reservation-based nonprofits working to eliminate barriers to credit and increase wealth through entrepreneurship, as well as provide capitalization to the established and emerging Native CDFIs.

What has this meant?  As First Nations Oweesta surpasses its decade milestone, it has worked with reservation-based community partners to grow the industry from two Native CDFIs to the more than 65 we see today.  The technical assistance has provided the necessary training that helped these same communities receive more than 175 awards from the U.S. Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, totaling more than $31 million.

As we take this moment to reflect on these accomplishments, we need to acknowledge our partners: the CDFI Fund, whose staff have been strong supporters of First Nations Oweesta’s work; our foundation partners that provide both credit capital and much needed operating income; First Nations Oweesta’s staff that create and run the programs; and most importantly, the reservation communities themselves for inviting us to join them in their dreams and their hard work. We will continue to be a good partner in enabling their work that allows Native communities to thrive and move ahead.

Yes, there are many advantages to teaching Indians the benefits of financial management. A couple of years ago, however, I was having a conversation with the wise and wonderful Linetta Gilbert, my then program officer at the Ford Foundation. And it did not take us long to come to agreement – that teaching financial management to reservation residents whose annual income is, on average, $7,900, while valuable, is much like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Helping folks better manage their incomes is not going to allow them to ‘save themselves to prosperity.’

If we want to empower folks, and create real economic change and possibilities for wealth creation, we need to move beyond tactics and into full-blown economic development strategies. One way in which reservation residents can create ‘game changing’ wealth strategies is through entrepreneurship and business creation. Think about it. A small (even a micro-) business that nets $160-$165 per week, will essentially double the annual income of Indian reservation residents.

This is the reason why the emerging community development financial institution (CDFI) industry has been so important, because it is making debt credit available in reservation communities where traditional banks and financial institutions still fear to tread. And with 59 certified Native CDFI’s currently serving Indian Country and another 50-60 in the development pipeline, it is time for us to envision a solution for the next step of small business financing for Indian reservation entrepreneurs – equity capital financing. Imagine the growth opportunities for Indian businesses with real equity for working capital, etc. Imagine what this will mean for Indian Country and strengthening tribal economies.

I believe that strong Native communities can be built through visionary economic change, and we can accomplish this together through your continued support. In our newsletter next month, you will learn more about how you can help us share in the work of equity capital financing and growing the number of Indian reservation entrepreneurs.

For Hudson and Silver-Greenberg, their bosses cannot find enough bad things to say about Elizabeth Warren, the new Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  And why not?  For years these stout defenders of free-enterprise and free-market capitalism have turned a blind eye to the profane profits made by predatory lenders.  Profits are profits, as long as they are legal (e.g. meet regulatory, or in this case, unregulated approval), and as long as you are non-Indian.  Yep, I said it.

But something happened on the way to the reservation.  In the article “Debt Deception: Fights Over Tribal Payday Lenders Show Challenges of Financial Reform”, Hudson and Silver-Greenberg put their super powers on display.  Yes, this two-headed super-hero feigned outrage that someone might make money off pay-day lending.  False Sanctimonious Man’s outrage was reserved for pay-day lenders who were affiliating with Indian tribes, while Ostrich Girl continues to bury her head in the sand and ignore the fact that for years pay-day lenders have set up shop at the edge of Indian reservations and preyed on Indian Country’s poor and un-banked citizens.  And not to be outdone, Alicia Caldwell from the Denver Post, aka Copycat Girl, just could not help herself and along with her editors, published “Hiding Behind a Tribe” on February 13, 2011.

My question to Monsieur Hudson and Mademoiselle’s Silver-Greenberg and Caldwell is: Where has your outrage been when the pay-day lending industry was pilfering millions of dollars from Indian tribal members?

In a 2009 study, “Borrowed Time: Use of Refund Anticipation Loans Among EITC Filers in Native American Communities,” First Nations Development Institute’s research demonstrated that predatory lenders, by means of refund anticipation loans, drained more than $22 million from Indian communities in 10 states.  And the dead quiet you heard was the Wall Street Journal’s and the Denver Post’s response to this news.

It used to be said that the only good Indian was a dead Indian.  I guess today it is safe to say that the only good pay-day lender is a non-Indian pay-day lender.

As Indian people, we are well aware of the very real fact that we have neither the large demographic numbers, nor the population density, nor the political clout to effect notice and/or priority and as a result are an easy target for one-sided reporting.  We know that we will rarely get a fair shake.

But in this instance I ask, please spare me the false sanctimony, and go back to burying your head in the sand. Or better yet, try writing something original.  Or fair.

As the Cobell settlement begins to look more like a reality, we have to face some other realities with regard to money and markets, specifically, how do we invest idle funds awaiting distribution or those set aside for the education endowment? Do we as Indian people have an obligation to invest any portion of the settlement with Indian institutions that provide opportunities and services to Indian people rather than in non-Indian controlled investment vehicles? During the payout process, funds from the settlement will have to be temporarily invested somewhere, so why not invest at least a portion of those funds directly into Indian institutions rather than Wall Street? Are we brave enough to endure a bit more perceived financial risk in exchange for a proven pathway to economic sovereignty? After all, the Cobell case was about non-Indian mismanagement of Indian money. If we have learned anything from history, we have learned that Indian people have historically been economically disempowered by non-Indians in the name of ‘fiduciary responsibility’.

In financial terms, what is the increased risk of requiring one penny out of every dollar to be invested in Indian Country? More interestingly, what is the potential pay-off and how might we enlist other partners in the process?

If we were to require 1% of the $2 billion Cobell settlement to be put to work in Indian Country, what could be the pay-off/reward for that risk, and what would Indian Country have to give up in terms of risk or rate of return?

Here’s a ‘back-of-the-envelope’ risk and reward calculation to ponder. To date the money invested in Native CDFI’s as a result of Indian-specific language in the CDFI Act, has enabled the growth of the Native CDFI industry. The reach and impact of these programs have been significant. Since 2002, the CDFI Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury has awarded more than 175 grants totaling $31 million to Native CDFI’s serving almost 100 Native communities. The growth of the Native CDFI industry is a remarkable accomplishment given that prior to the year 2000, there were just a handful of Native CDFI’s. These Native organizations bring leadership and stability to their communities by building assets and expanding economic opportunity for the people they serve. Native CDFI’s are fully capable of ensuring the sustainable and economic wellbeing of Native communities, and serve as ideal institutions of perpetuating tribal economic sovereignty.

Additionally, based on First Nations Development Institute’s evaluation of our grantmaking program to Native CDFI’s, we have shown that for every $1 we have invested in Native CDFI’s, each dollar has been leveraged at a rate of about 20 to 1 ($20 to $1) – that means that our initial investment in early-stage Native CDFI’s helped them raise significant additional funds for their work. More important, for each $1 we gave in grant funds, we saw at least $7 of that $20 in loans made to Native American small businesses or individuals. I believe that Indian Country would be hard-pressed to find an alternative investment that offered that relatively safe rate of return, while at the same time providing opportunity for Indian individuals in unbanked Native communities. Native CDFI’s provide much needed debt capital for consumer loans, home financing and small business working capital. Without these CDFI’s, there remains very few opportunities for financing in Native communities, save predatory lenders.

So what’s the risk? Well, as with any investment past performance does not guarantee future returns, so we don’t have a definite answer. But in the case of Native CDFI’s, we have some pretty good proxies. First Nations Oweesta Corporation pays its socially-responsible investors 2% to 3% on their investment – which is better by the way, than current bank certificate of deposit rates. To date, First Nations Oweesta has seen no defaults from its Native CDFI institutional borrowers. In all likelihood, it is a bit much to ask to believe that there will continue to be zero.

But it is equally as absurd to believe that all of the loans to Native CDFI’s will not be repaid. So let’s take the average of 0% default and 100%, or 50%, which is still absurdly high. Using a simple weighted average rate of return, we would have 50% chance of returning 2% or 3%, and a 50% chance of returning 0%, which would give us an on average, risk-adjusted, rate of return of 1% to 1.5%, which is still comparable or better than investing in ‘risk-free’ certificates of deposit.

So for no increased risk for the investor, and no reduced return on investment in the portfolio, what we have left is a big return on investment for Indian Country itself through the Native CDFI’s ability to leverage the dollars invested.

And rather that lamenting the risk associated with the investment in Native CDFI’s, let’s look at opportunities to involve partners in mitigating the risk. There is a growing movement among the private foundation and corporate community to look at program related investments. I believe that given the ability of Native CDFI’s to leverage funding, that there is an incredible opportunity for these same foundations and corporations to provide the assurance and fund a loan-loss reserve pool to further insure that any losses incurred by the Native CDFI’s would not compromise the return on investment of the 1% of the $2 billion invested from the Cobell settlement, much like a BIA loan guarantee insures commercial lenders to lend capital to Indian Country.

So I ask my question again, are we courageous enough to lead the way to economic prosperity and economic sovereignty by trusting our own proven Indian institutions and putting economic control and therefore real economic power in the hands of our own Indian people?

 Michael E. Roberts (Tlingit) is the president of First Nations Development Institute. First Nations is a national Native American-led nonprofit organization, celebrating 30 years of strengthening American Indian economies.

I am an Indian professional.  I get to choose being an Indian and being a professional. And I am well aware that I am lucky. I know that for folks like my father, as a young man trying to provide for his family in bigoted and segregated Southeast Alaska, this was not a choice he believed he had. As well, he did not think he got to choose to be Indian and choose to have a job at the local mill that allowed him to provide life’s comforts for his family.  I have written before about how that I believe that my father’s willingness to fold his Indian-ness and place it safely away in a drawer each day before he went to work, was a sacrifice he made so that I can wear mine so casually and effortlessly each day.

If you would like we can have that side conversation again, about courage and bravery, and how I believe that these are virtues more afforded by some given time, social context and economics.  I will continue to argue that we as Indian professionals today can more easily obtain these virtues, mainly because of the sacrifices and bravery of those who came before us.

So since it is January and I am preparing to write my thank you notes to all those wonderful folks who have reached into their pockets and made the personal financial sacrifice to support the work we do here at First Nations.  Let me also take the time to express my everlasting gratitude to some of the folks who have come before me and whose past and current bravery allows me daily to embrace and own my Indian-ness.  To my Indian hero’s – Jim Thorpe, Vine Deloria Jr., and Elizabeth Peratrovich, Gunalchéesh (Thank you).  To my mentors, Tom Vigil, Rebecca Adamson, David Lester, Rick Williams, John Echohawk, Marguerite Smith, Lucille Echohawk, and many other mentors and colleagues too many to mention, Gunalchéesh (Thank you).

With that being said, however,  a recent conversation with a friend about ‘tipping point’ moments in one’s life, made me recognize that one of those moments, for me, came about and at the time when, while the opportunity was there, I am pretty sure that my preparation did not fully accompany it.

And while I have always related to the sentiment, it was not until I read Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture that I had the exact motto for how I viewed barriers and obstacles in my life.  Mr. Pausch articulated it best when he stated, “Brick walls are there for a reason – they are not there to keep us out, they are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

And while I am always a bit embarrassed with I relate this story, as there is a very, shall we say, cheesy moment, it was very defining for me personally.

So let me set up the scenario.  Back in the late 90’s, I was researching the Ewing Marian Kauffman Foundation’s annual report, trying to figure out a way to approach them for funding for First Nations.  One of the items in the report was a profile of the inaugural class of Kauffman Fellows.  The Kauffman Fellows was a program where the foundation was taking young folks and placing them with a venture capital firm for two years, in essence for these ‘lucky’ individuals to be mentored into the venture capital business by folks who had spent their entire lives in the industry, a very real opportunity to learn at the feet of a master.  Intrigued, I called the individual profiled, and she shared with me that it was the most incredible experience of her life and that I should take the chance and apply. 

Now later on, when I was talking to one of the folks running the program, she laughingly told me that those who applied where either really confident, bordering on arrogant, or terribly naïve – put me down (at least at that time in my life) for the latter.  And despite my naiveté, I was able to convince folks throughout the three-stage interview process that led to the final selection event, that my real-world experience in working for an Indian nonprofit, was every bit as relevant as the other candidates there and their Ivy League business school résumés.  And the last event . . .

The last event was cut-throat, competitive and corporate America at its finest.  The process brought in the 24 finalist candidates, and 12 venture capital firms.  Yep, you guessed it, there would be 12 winners, and the other 12 of us would go home with the ‘Jeopardy home game’, ‘thanks for playing’ consolation prize.  So for the entire weekend, we were sequestered in a hotel in Kansas City, where we were to convince one of the 12 firms that they should choose us to spend the next two years with them.  It was like a huge cocktail party and student body popularity contest rolled into one.  And as a card carrying introvert, I don’t think I could have assembled a worst nightmare.

Even today, I can hear the lyrics to Kansas’ “The Wall” playing in my head:

“The path that I have chosen now
Has led me to a wall.
It rises now before me,
A dark and silent barrier between,
All I am, and all that I would ever want to be,
It’s just a travesty.”

The very first event, after the orientation, was a dreaded cocktail party – my personal hell.  I remember vividly, even today, stepping off the elevator and walking up to the party in complete horror.  And I turned around and went back to the elevator and pushed the button to go back to my room.  I decided then and there that this was not for me.  Again the words to Kansas’ song:

“To pass beyond is what I seek
I fear that I may be too weak
And those are few who seen it
Through to glimpse the other side.”

The rationalization . . . “Hey, I’m out of my league.”  “You know, for a guy with an MBA from the University of Washington, I’m not supposed to be here.”  And there were many, many more.

And as I am walking down the hall to my room; back to my room to pack and head home, because I just couldn’t do this, it happens.  [Fair warning, here comes the really cheesy part]  I get this visual in my head.  It’s that scene at the end of the movie Top Gun where Tom Cruise is refusing to engage in the firefight.  And over and over all his superiors are shouting into the radio, “Engage Maverick.” 

I realized that this was one of those ‘show how badly you want something moments.’  And I turned around and went back down the elevator, and fumbled my way through the first cocktail party and the next, and then the entire weekend.  And in the end I landed a two-year fellowship that has changed my life dramatically.  But most importantly, it was my facing my fears that weekend that changed my life.

Queue up that Kansas music for the soundtrack again:

“And though it’s always been with me,
I must tear down the Wall and let it be
All I am, and all that I was ever meant to be, in harmony.”

You see, I was totally unprepared for the opportunity that was placed before me on that weekend in Kansas City.  I had always compensated for my shyness and wrapped myself in my unwillingness to interact, and had survived.  But that weekend in Kansas City opened my eyes to how unprepared I was, especially when I realized at that moment how much I really wanted that fellowship.

I will leave you with these questions … Are you lucky? Will you be prepared when opportunity presents itself?  What should you be working on now, that you know if you neglect may trip you up in the future?  Will you “Engage Maverick?”

“Native Americans also have not been permitted to participate fully in the philanthropic process in the United States and consequently have not shared equally in the dynamic manifold redistribution of economic resources that is nearly unique and so vital to American society. Yet Native American traditions of giving, sharing, and community are truly philanthropic – that is, motivated by something quite akin to the classical Greek philos/anthropos, a love for humankind, a love for the People. Indeed, if we are to understand the complex motives and meanings that drive philanthropic behavior across the spectrum of human cultures, Native American cultures of giving offer extraordinary clear illuminations and insights.”

We must also note that as we talk about philanthropy in Indian Country, we must be cautious, as the word itself has been the loaded gun pointed at Indian Country’s head from the beginning. The many voices currently joining the choir and asking for Indians to use their new-found Indian gaming revenue for philanthropy, must understand the way in which this same ideal has been used against Indians in the past. Patricia Nelson Limerick, considered by many to be one of the leading historians of the American West, noted in her book, The Legacy of Conquest, that:

“From the beginning, the usual justification was that Indians were not using the land properly. Relying on hunting and gathering, savagery neglected the land’s true potential and kept out those who could put it to proper use. A sparse Indian population wasted the resources that could support a dense white population. The argument thus shifted the terms of greed and philanthropy: it was not that white people were greedy and mean-spirited; Indians were the greedy ones, keeping so much land to themselves; and the white people were philanthropic and farsighted in wanting to liberate the land for its proper use.

Philanthropy went even further, to the idea that this was all in the Indians’ interest. The instincts of humanity required that Indians be liberated from savagery and advanced to civilization. It was the only way to rescue them from their otherwise fated decline.”

The same argument is being restated today over Indian gaming. The Indians are again being ‘greedy’ – keeping all those casino riches to themselves. These ‘riches’ are not that large in the greater context of the need and past obligations to Indian Country. If all of the profits from Indian gaming were distributed on a per capita basis, it would bring the Indians living in reservations communities up to 50% of the median income of the average person in the United States.

Patricia Nelson Limerick, goes on to state that:

“Indians, once in contact with the course of white settlement, became helpless and passive, acted on and never acting. They were solely victims, utterly at the mercy of either white cruelty or, less likely, white benevolence. Their destiny would be determined by whites; if any Indians survived, it would be by the good graces of white people and not by Indian resourcefulness.”

Today, however, because of the lack of these good graces, Indian Country is increasingly relying on its own resourcefulness and increasingly creating formalized philanthropic entities that mirror their values – Indian-controlled, Indian-funded, and Indian value-centered philanthropic organizations.

In the past 30 years, First Nations has witnessed and associated with a growth of what some would call ‘formal’ Native philanthropic programs. These programs are not unrelated to different tribes’ tradition of philanthropy, and in some ways, are an extension of pre-existing practices aimed at helping others. More and more tribal governments are using charitable grantmaking entities to assist with their economic, social, and cultural programs, and an increasing number of Native nonprofit institutions are operating innovative grantmaking programs. While not all Native-controlled grantmaking organizations fall into this category, many Native-controlled grantmaking institutions have an explicit mission of social change.

Underlying this belief is the understanding that solutions can be found and built upon many millennia of cultural knowledge and tradition. Basically, what we are saying is that if we just value, trust, and practice what we have been doing for thousands of years . . . we can affect our own self-sufficiency and our own self-determination.

Formalized Indian philanthropy today, while still in its infancy, is looking to build effective grantmaking foundations, on tribes’ own terms. Today there are more than 54 of these groups in the United States that are working to be value-centered and responsive to the Native communities they serve. Increasingly, with the help of technical assistance from First Nations, they are demonstrating sound grantmaking practices and rigorous financial management. This will continue into the future.

Vine Deloria, Jr. said it best when he noted, “Indian people are re-examining themselves in an effort to redefine a new social structure for their people.” The very process of building their own philanthropic institutions demonstrates the way in which Indians are operating from a culturally-based voice of strength, assuredness and accomplishment rather than in a moral voice of pity, helplessness, and rescue. This is where American Indians must and will exist in America’s philanthropic reality.

Tribes deserve an equal seat at the philanthropy table with other mainstream grantmakers.

As a result, if we wish to have philanthropy that mirrors our values, we must form and fund our own, Indian-controlled, Indian-funded, and Indian value-centered philanthropic organizations. And we must operate these Indian philanthropic organizations better than any mainstream foundation. Even better, I mean more value-centered, more community-responsive, and more managerially sound. We need to continue growing Indian philanthropies and have them go from being the exception to being the norm.

“It comes as a great shock to discover that Gary Cooper was killing off the Indians, when you were rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians were you. It comes as a great shock to discover the country, which is your birth place, and to which you owe your life and your identity, has not in its whole system of reality involved any place for you.”

When contemplating American Indians in the United States we soon realize that to many Americans, American Indian history month is American Indians’ only reality. In fact that reality might be best offered up by anti-racist activist Tim Wise in his book, “White Like Me”, when he described that to many, appreciation of other cultures is reserved to “food, fabric and festivals,” with nary a consideration for the socio-political views or the social economic realities these others face.

I have shared with you before that I begin each year by having to approach the school’s principal and teachers and educate them about Indians, dispel myths, and fight against the stereotypes they bring to the classroom. And the good news is that this leads to the opportunity to go to my daughters’ classrooms and chat with their classmates about Indians. And for my daughters, this is an important part in them taking pride in their heritage and who they are as Native people.

Some years are better than others. For example, three years ago, I had to specifically ask the principal to remove the goofy Indian caricatures from the entry bulletin board. The past couple of years, however, I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised, so the persistence must be paying off. In fact, I would love to give a special acknowledgement to Jim Heacocks, the principal at my daughters’ school, who last year sent the following message to his staff:

“Please be sensitive to cultural stereotypes of all of our students at Central. For the obvious reason that half of our students are of Hispanic/Latino ancestry, we are usually very aware of avoiding stereotypes of the Hispanic culture. However, we do have other cultures at Central: Chinese, African American, and Native American, to name a few. At this time of year, we can slip into stereotypes around Thanksgiving, i.e., the Pilgrims and the Indians.

We have Native American families who are very sensitive of cultural stereotypes and we need to ensure we do not propagate those stereotypes. One of the practices to avoid is presenting sacred activities in trivial ways. A popular activity (I saw some on students’ heads at the end of the day today…) is making headbands with feathers. In some Native American tribes feathers are highly religious articles and the aforementioned activity is highly offensive and disrespectful.

I have some resources and information that can help us become more aware of the Native American culture and stereotypes to avoid. This is just a reminder that we need to be aware of how other cultures may take offense at something that we see as perfectly innocent.”

So as much time as I spend railing about what is not going right, let me take the time and acknowledge when it does. It is so refreshing to have a school leader like Mr. Heacocks. I want to recognize him and thank him for his work in making my daughters’ school an okay place to be Indian.

As I have written about before, here at First Nations Development Institute we spend a fair amount of our time and energy building programs and opportunities for the next generation of culturally competent leaders. I, and most Indian parents, spend an equal, if not greater, amount of energy doing so at home. We send our kids to school with the hope that they will survive these attempts at cultural indoctrination. Our fear for our kids’ self-worth and self-esteem is just as great as when our grandparents feared for the physical well-being of their children when they had to send them off to the horrors of Indian boarding schools.

You may be wondering, what can I do to help? Well, here are a couple of things that you can do : 1) drop off, at your kids or grandkids school, a copy of Rethinking Columbus, edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Patterson; and 2) assist school libraries find books that portray Indians as living, thriving cultures, not as victims of history. One great publication provided by the American Indian Library Association and the Office of Literacy and Outreach Services is the esource, “Selective Bibliography and Guide for ‘I’ is Not for Indian: The Portrayal of Native Americans in Books for Young People”. Print this off the web and deliver it to the principal and the school librarian – http://www.ailanet.org/publications/inotindian.htm.

Gunalchéesh (Thank you).