It was with a sense of trepidation that we accepted an invitation to address the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council in North Dakota. We had been there before, at the invitation of the Sitting Bull College, and had been impressed by the talent, determination and skills of the tribal people that we had met. But to be invited to address the Tribal Council was a totally different experience! First of all I felt honored. These are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas with ancestry spreading all the way from the Artic Circle to the Yucatan Peninsula. Secondly these are the beloved Sioux of my childhood games (pronounced SEE-U-K-S in Italy!). Who would ever have imagined that one day I would have been invited to address their Tribal Council!? Yet Yvonne Fizer and I had a tremendous reception that started at the airport in Bismarck and continued for an entire day. The invitation was extended to us by the Tribal Chairman, Ron His-Horse-Is-Thunder, who had attended our presentation at the College last year and who has become a champion for our methodology. This time however we met many other tribal leaders including the formidable (Big) Dave Archambault, his wife Betty and a number of members of their family including his son Dave Jr. and daughter in law Nicole who are very successful entrepreneurs.
Big Dave, among many other duties, runs the local tribal radio station and we were interviewed after addressing the Tribal Council. We left the community with the hope of being invited back, this time to establish an Enterprise Facilitation® project. It would be the first such project established by an Indian Tribal Council in America and the idea sends shivers down my spine! We repeat time and time again that THERE IS NO GEOGRAPHY TO PASSION. We also know that race and culture have nothing to do with it either and we look forward to demonstrate what we teach right here, in the majestic planes of North Dakota, under the watchful eye of Sitting Bull!
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