Hello fellow tribal and community members, I hope this article reaches you in good health and spirits with the promise of Spring right around the corner! I do my best to report out to the membership following any conference or training that I attend and although I’ve already provided a verbal report on my most recent training in Washington, it was so good it’s worth repeating.
Attending the recent Tribal Official Academy training in Washington was a transformative experience that provided invaluable insights and practical resources for 50 elected officials representing 15 tribal nations.
The training offered a unique opportunity for me to gain a deeper understanding of tribal governance overall and the multifaceted intricacies of our work and issues affecting Indian country not only in the northwest but across the United States. By delving quickly into topics such as tribal sovereignty, government-to-government consultation and inter-tribal relationships, I only wish I had attended sooner!
Furthermore, the training provided quite a few practical resources and tools, which as a fairly pragmatic person I always appreciate. There’s no need to unnecessarily reinvent the wheel and learning from others in a good way from best practices in tribal consultation to effective communication with the tribal membership empowers us to build a stronger organization and tribal community.
One of the key takeaways from the training was the emphasis on the importance of building trust and mutual respect in all facets of our work resulting in more effective decision-making and policy outcomes. It was also a good reminder for me to circle back around on previous conversations on the need to develop a comprehensive onboarding and orientation program for newly elected officials. It was even surprising to learn that over half the participating tribes had official job descriptions for their tribal council.
With over 80% of the attendees representing Washington, my hope is to host the training in Grand Ronde and garner more interest from the 8 other federally recognized tribes in Oregon for more participation in the future to collaborate on initiatives that can then be presented at ATNI and then NCAI for future legislation affecting Oregon.
In closing, I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Kamiah Kosh, Social Media & Digital Journalist with Smoke Signals to conduct a podcast highlighting a specific topic at the training that was near and dear to my heart around culture and spiritual healing that I hope you have the time to listen to.
Listen to the podcast here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/podcast-106-tribal-council-secretary-michael-cherry-attends-tribal-elected-official-academy-training--58962860
Hayu Masi, be well.
Michael Cherry