Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, Senior Technical Assistance Consultant, Tribal Law Policy Institute, Tribal Youth Resource Center
November is designated as a time to celebrate Native American Heritage, although many of us celebrate it every day. One aspect of our beautiful heritage includes culturally driven leadership practices, values and philosophy. Although Tribal Nations have differences and similarities in leadership styles, it would be safe to assume that historically, many, if not all, promoted and practiced cultural values as the foundation for leadership. There were rigorous training standards for becoming an effective Tribal/Indigenous leader, none of which was based on learning from a book. Additionally, there were leadership roles that require life-long training. For example, according to the Lakota worldview, babies and children instilled with cultural teachings can help them to live a balanced, healthy, happy and productive life and ultimately can lead to becoming a wise and strong Elder. Tribal Elders were often seen as the family and community leaders.
In the world of program and organizational leadership, individuals are often in positions that require balancing and managing multiple programs and initiatives. Some organizations provide leadership and managerial training for those new to the job and some provide ongoing training to build and maintain capacity for effective leadership. Unfortunately, many program directors and managers do not have such opportunities due to budgetary and other constraints. With respect to tribal youth programs or tribal juvenile healing to wellness court projects, directors and managers are faced with ensuring goals and objectives are met, overseeing financial management, forming collaborative partnerships, social marketing, engaging youth, parents and community, hiring staff, supervising staff, report writing, and meeting deadlines. The sheer amount of work required in implementing a program can often be overwhelming.
I have the wonderful experience of directing tribal programs for many years on my home reservation. My experience is that community dynamics and contextual factors such as poverty, historical, community and individual trauma to name a few, are not often included in an orientation to a position (that is, if there was an orientation) and one learned how to respond to highly sensitive situations through “on the job” training. In my case, having a wonderful family support system and a strong belief in Lakota cultural values helped me to navigate many challenges. The concept of “Mitakuye Oyasin” (a Lakota language term for “All my relations/relatives”) helped me to understand the importance of seeing the youth and families in programs that I’ve directed as relatives and not as “clients” or “cases”. In another project, our staff participated in a training initiative that served to “unlearn” strategies and practices that were harmful to our people or “decolonize” in other words; and to re-learn and reconnect to cultural teachings that had kept our people in balance from time immemorial.
For many Indigenous/Tribal people, our shared historical experiences have for the most part, led to adopting mainstream conventional organizational practices and leadership styles, which can be effective for some. For others, exploring how to restore, establish and/or strengthen our respective cultural teachings and languages in our programs and organizations can be such an exciting journey and can lead to more meaningful engagement with Native youth and communities.
The content of this blog is the opinion of the author and does not reflect the ideas, ideologies or points of view of OJJDP, TLPI or TYRC.
