Convening in Cherokee Focuses on Creation of Leadership Program for Adult EBCI Members

CHEROKEE, NC, July 22, 2009 – Cherokee Preservation Foundation announced today that 25 leaders and key representatives of EBCI tribal entities, as well as educational, non-profit and community organizations, participated in a convening this week in Cherokee to help develop a culture-based leadership learning program that will serve adult EBCI members. 

Participants are helping Cherokee Preservation Foundation define the type of leadership program most appropriate for the EBCI, where best to develop and apply the program, the desired elements of the program, and how best to deliver the program to tribal members. 

Cherokee Preservation Foundation has been developing a progression of leadership programming over the past three years, starting with opportunities for youth.  Youth programs developed so far include the cross-cultural eco-study program that gives tribal youth opportunities to travel to Costa Rica, the Cherokee Youth Council, and the Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Program.

Now the focus is on an adult leadership program.  Four distinguished national guests came to the convening to share their experiences and perspectives about culture-based learning for adults with the local participants.

Mr. Joe Garcia, President of the National Congress of American Indians and Chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council, told the group, “Native American survival is at stake – our culture, language, sovereignty, health and well being.  Becoming educated and incorporating our traditional values and beliefs into the education of our people is the key to our success.”  Garcia, whose wife Oneva is a member of the EBCI, told the convening, “I have been coming to Cherokee for 39 years, but never for something as important as leadership.”

Dr. Manley Begay, Senior Lecturer and Associate Social Scientist in the American Studies Program at the University of Arizona, asked, “What kind of society do you want 100 years from now?  Through its leadership programs, the EBCI is laying a foundation for younger generation leaders. Your leadership program will be a life-time work, a legacy for your tribe.”

Ms. Laura Harris, Executive Director of American Indians for Opportunity (the home of the American Indians Ambassadors Program), told local leaders they will be developing a program “to cultivate doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs.  For thousands of years, tribes have had different kinds of leaders deal with different kinds of problems.  Consider the creation of a holistic leadership program that helps participants have a stronger sense of identity, be proactive, and have a non-victim mentality and a global perspective.”

Dr. David Gipp, President of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND, remarked, “We have an obligation to teach and re-teach the traditional ways many have not known about.   Our leaders need to be well grounded and well informed about our traditions and culture so they can teach it to young people, who crave to know who they are and what they are about.  The information must come from us, not from archeologists.”

For more information about the adult leadership convening and Cherokee Preservation Foundation’s youth leadership programs, contact Bobby Raines at Cherokee Preservation Foundation at 497-5550.