Original Intent

We had another one of those "meetings" today. There was an effort to delay it, which included me. At this point I think any decision that has the potential to go down to a single Council vote might as well have all nine of us there. Not sure that it would have made a difference today in the outcome.
Undoubtedly people will learn of what decision took place today, and while it may have symbolic significance, I must admit the Tribe will as always move on.
But I wonder now the relevance anymore of what is supposed to be a fundamental part of the Tribe's philosophy, one that most if not all tribes I've encountered share. That is putting control of tribes in the hand of the tribal members e.g. jobs, boards, committees, governing (like my position), publications, the gaming commission. Though not always a well-defined goal, it's still a worthwhile one. Today though was almost affirmation of my suspicions that while we may strive to one day have a Tribe, including its governance, business, and judicial functions all run by and for our Tribal membership, a reasonable goal as members are the stakeholders, I'm becoming convinced such a notion is the epitome of idealistic. Sounds good, but given human nature, more fantastic than realistic.
The former General Manager of our casino was a Tribal member, and at least concerning our bottom line, got the job done. But certain people didn't like him, and the basis for their dislike always seemed personal, and on occasions, political. The same could be said for Spirit Mountain Casino's first General Manager, also a Tribal member. I've lost count of all the complaints we've gotten over the years about how bad, supposedly, this Tribe is about hiring its own members, at the casino and the governance center. Often those complaints have come from people who didn't get the jobs or positions they wanted. But as I mentioned earlier, even when a Tribal member is given a key position or promoted, the issue invariably becomes who the member is, and that they are Tribal is quickly forgotten. You can't win.
During my Tribal Government training last year, we were taught about the Allotment Act, and how decades after that historic decision it was considered an epic failure. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, now more than 20 years old, was also supposed to be a historic decision, and right not I can't deny it hasn't been. Grand Ronde has, for all my issues, benefited pretty well from IGRA. But there are cracks in the armor.
We too have had to deal with corruption, with strife, and the divisiveness an ongoing struggle for power and resources that enormous and almost sudden wealth brings. We've also had to deal with petty agendas, where whether one is good at their job or not, or whether one has made wise decisions, or whether one is even a shareholder in a key position i.e. a Tribal member, is irrelevant because for whatever reason somebody at the top doesn't like you. When I see this kind of stuff, it depresses me, because aren't we as tribes supposed to be different? Aren't we sitting on a world of opportunity, a chance to be a model organization, to be self-sufficient, the envy of all other governments, tribal or not?
I worry sometimes, that like Allotment, one day the Federal Government will conduct a review on tribes since IGRA. They will see the family feuds, the pettiness, the partisan politics, and that which I would probably get into trouble for writing about. And they, like me, will say "this is not what we intended".