Dwight Howe, Cultural Presenter

Dwight is of Omaha & Ponca Indian ancestry. His Ponca grandmother who raised him helped instill a real sense of who he was and pride in being a Native American. He attended Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma and Haskell Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas where he graduated their first Tribal Management Program in 1986. Dwight served his country spending seven years in the United States Marine Corps. As a Pre-I.G. Inspector, Sgt. Howe had many opportunities to travel and meet people from all over the United States.

Living in Southern California for many years, Dwight worked with Southern California Indian Center's, Inc. in their Public Relations Department as an Outreach Specialist. He engaged in public speaking, large scale event coordinating and conducting cultural presentations at universities such as the UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge, University of Southern California, UCLA, as well as for many state & civic organizations. Dwight worked with the Orange County Unified School Districts giving classes in Cultural Awareness to 5th and 6th graders. While in California he was the founder and co-chairman of the 501c3 non-profit United Urban Indian Food Program, which was a food bank for urban Indians living in the greater Los Angeles area. Dwight has also received training on archival research with the Smithsonian Institute and has served as a NAGPRA consultant.

Since returning to Oklahoma, Dwight has worked as a Ponca Tribal Police Officer, Tribal Housing Superintendent and started a youth Boxing Club were he raised over $20,000 for a facility and equipment. He was nominated and served several years on the Okla. Region III, Selective Service Draft Board. Dwight's other interests involve being a Native American dancer including the Ponca War Dance and Straight Dance. He is an active member of the Omaha’s Strongheart Sun Dance Society and a lifetime member of the (AH KE NAZI) a Ponca Warrior Society of Oklahoma. Dwight was also involved with the American Legion Buffalo Post 38 for many years which is the first and oldest All-Indian veterans post in the U.S.

Dwight recently finished a two year project serving as Native American Cultural Advisor for Marland's Grand Home http://www.marlandgrandhome.com working on their Native American Collection and as their consultant. Dwight has served as a cultural advisor for two State Parks in Iowa & in Nebr., and is actively involved with the Nat’l Park Service, Lewis & Clark Corps II Discovery project as a Cultural Presenter www.lewisandclarkgnet.org/index/. Dwight currently lives in Waubay South Dakota working at a Co-Ed Residential Alcohol Treatment Facility as a Chemical Dependancy Technician.

His most recent completed project was coordinating the giving of food baskets to over 100 Indian Elders 65 and older, from four tribes in North Central Oklahoma, website www.freewebs.com/iefp/ gives the details. Dwight is now applying for training as a Firestarter for White Bison, Inc. a Native American Indian Wellbriety program, www.whitebison.org, which offers healing resources to the whole community using native vaules and beliefs promoting grassroots coommunity circles of recovery.

His email address: dhowe@itctel.com

American Indians in Politics??

There was a time many years ago, natural laws were respected and adhered to by the aboriginal people of this land called the Americas. Our leaders knew the almost sacred obligation of leading a group of people and conducted themselves accordingly. It would take a person many years of living a life that could be respected and admired, before he would even consider leading the people. Among my relatives, I am told he would have to have one hundred give aways before he would be eligible for leadership, that's just to be eligible, and they called that his count to One Hundred. He would initiate this process maybe around his late twenties to mid thirties making his intentions known by feeding the people, putting on a feast. At this feast he would give away to all the clan leaders, tribal leaders, important guests, and/or the needy, his family and friends would most likely have to help him in his endeavors. With each feast and give away it would be similar in his efforts and noted by the tribe.

From that time on the people would then watch and observe him in the following years. They would ask..did he show compassion when compassion was needed? Was he generous and kind to people? Was he a man that you could go to for help and/or advice? Did he help solve problems and show respect for the elders, was he good to the children? Was he a good hunter and provider for his family? Was he humble and a man of prayer with good spiritual being? Did he put the people first in all his affairs? Was he quick to anger or did he show restraint before acting? Those are just a few of the things the people looked for in him as a leader. If he did live his life in a good way the people would then follow him, they would camp around him and support him. If he was picked as a leader his decisions were respected and the people willing followed his advice, he would most likely be in his fifties. That was many, many years ago before the coming of todays dominant society.

Today it appears that a significant number of tribes tend to follow the dominant societies way of governing. It seems that they put themselves and their families and friends first and the people they are supposed to serve last. They come accross as having too much pride in their status as tribal leaders and develop egos that prevents them from relating to the common man. All too frequently many tribes commit wholly to following the path of todays form of government and fruad, greed and corruption is the end result for many. They learn quickly to say many good words and make long speeches about the need for change and are swift to place blame on others for todays problems. Tribal governments are now elected by the popular vote and not the qualified vote their ancestored endorsed. This means they could be totally unqualified for the position, unethical and/or corrupt, have no actual concept on how to effectively manage a entity as large as a tribe, but because they have a lot of relatives/friends they get voted in. They have ultimate control over thousands and thousands of dollars in program monies. Their jurisdiction covers the entire reservation some which are as large as some states or maybe as small as one square block, but yet they have very little knowledge of governmental/accounting procedures or operating experience. The tribe's that do emulate the dominant societies form of goverening tend to fall to the pressures of centrism, nepotism and political favors with bribes, embezzlement with the waste of resources not far behind them

At first the United States founding fathers admired the American Indians original forms of governing so much so, they wrote the U.S. Constitution modeling it after the Great Law of Peace that the eastern woodland Indians lived by for generations. Through the years they have managed to change, amend and/or twist that democratic process to fit their own needs and wants, leaving the poor and less fortunate out of the picture. Today we have a very corrupt and ineffective form of government. Just look at the B.I.A. and the Interior Department as an example of how they have handled their trust responsibilities to see the neglect and mismanagement running rampant among the tribes. Not all tribes are that way but there are it seems to be more than naught. Currently some tribe's are even trying to play in the big game of Washington politics and with lobbying efforts that has unfortunately blown up on them, with a social/political backlash that will go against all tribes probably for many years to come, putting us back even further in our efforts to advance as a people in todays society.