Research Reports
Reflections on Traditional American Indian Ways, 1998
Threats to Tribal Sovereignty, 1998
Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance, 1997
Traditional American Indian Leadership - Intro
This report is an examination of two systems of decision-making - traditional American Indian leadership and U.S. governance. Long before contact with Europeans, American Indian people had complex and dynamic methods of developing and asserting leadership in tribal matters. Because of the diversity of American Indian tribal cultures and traditions, there was no single system of traditional American Indian leadership. American Indian tribal cultures in general, however, shared common distinctions from European-American traditions. We describe American Indian leadership and U.S. governance as two dichotomous systems while recognizing that they are multi-faceted and complex. This is an intentionally simplified conceptualization meant to outline the differences between American Indian and European-American forms of leadership and governance.
We have purposefully chosen to use the words "leadership" and "governance" to illustrate the difference between American Indian and European-American traditions. This is a deliberate attempt to deconstruct the language dominating the common understanding of these relationships. The concept of government is rooted in European political philosophy and tradition, and it denotes a bureaucratic organizational system of legitimate public power. Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of authority, control or power. Given this definition, American Indians did not traditionally "govern" themselves and it is inaccurate to try to fit American Indian leadership paradigms into this conceptual framework.
In delineating the major differences between these two decision-making systems, we describe traditional American Indian leadership in the past tense to introduce its historical basis. The crux of this report, however, is that traditional American Indian values and culture have been handed down through the generations and continue to influence American Indian leadership today. Knowledge about traditional American Indian leadership is therefore essential to understanding the contemporary situation of American Indians.
Accurate information about traditional American Indian leadership is necessary to counteract cultural misunderstandings and to illuminate the differences between American Indian and European-American traditions. Knowledge about the features of traditional American Indian leadership may help those working on behalf of American Indians to begin to develop more culturally-appropriate policies and programs for American Indians. It may also benefit the many American Indian tribes working to incorporate traditional leadership into their contemporary tribal governments. As an Ojibwe storyteller states, "Before you begin your council, bear in mind the history of the people, so that you may find inspiration and strength in knowing who and what we are" (Johnston, 1982, p. 163).
Accurate knowledge about American Indian leadership remains largely unknown to the majority of people in the U.S. because mainstream U.S. educational institutions have not satisfactorily explored it. Central aspects of traditional American Indian leadership have been overlooked and incorrect assumptions are disseminated in overt and subtle ways.
For many people in the U.S., the Iroquois Confederacy is the most familiar system of traditional American Indian leadership. This is partially because most academic information focuses on those aspects of the Iroquois Confederacy that correspond with the European-American understanding of "government." Some historical accounts suggest that Europeans used the Iroquois Confederacy as a model for designing the U.S. government's tricameral structure and separation of powers. Because of this, many people assume that the Iroquois Confederacy was a government similar to the U.S. system. In fact, not all of the Iroquois Confederacy was adopted into U.S. government. Missing from most historical accounts is a discussion of the traditions of the Iroquois Confederacy, and of American Indian leadership, that are distinct from U.S. governance.
Legitimate academic information on traditional American Indian leadership is scarce. Our literature review reveals a dearth of writings on this subject from an American Indian perspective. Most of the written information on traditional American Indian leadership is found in ethnographic documents written by non-Indian anthropologists. Unfortunately, ethnographers wrote from a European-American perspective and often lacked an understanding of American Indian traditions. As a result, ethnographers retro-fitted traditional Indian leadership practices into European-American conceptual frameworks. Hence, traditional American Indian leadership has been ill-defined and often misinterpreted in comparison to European-based governance.
In compiling this report, we gathered personal knowledge from American Indians. Talking with people about their experiences with traditional American Indian leadership practices is as important as written documentation. We also used written material from an American Indian perspective, primarily a book of stories called Ojibway Ceremonies, by Basil Johnston (1982), an Ojibwe born on the Parry Island Indian Reserve in Canada. Since we utilized this book, several examples of American Indian traditions from Ojibwe culture are cited. Another notable resource used was Neither Wolf Nor Dog (Nerburn, 1994), which records the thoughts of an American Indian elder who chose to be identified as "Dan". Dan is from the upper Midwest, but does not identify a specific tribal affiliation. While these were good resources, it is important to note that as with all research being developed about American Indians, we have incorporated information by reviewing and reading between the lines of various written materials about American Indian culture and traditions. This report is an effort to deliberately talk about leadership from an American Indian perspective, and that effort requires us to continuously develop methods with caution, tolerance, respect and creativity.
We stress that given the limitation of available written resources and the breadth of the topic, this report is a pilot effort to summarize the distinctions between traditional American Indian leadership and the U.S. system of governance. It draws primarily from traditions of the Ojibwe and Lakota tribes of the upper Midwest and is not intended to be representative of all American Indian nations. Many aspects of what is written here, however, are inter-tribal in nature.
Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance Contents
The
Well-Being of American Indian Children in Minnesota: Economic Conditions,
1994
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