By ROBERT JUMPER
Tutiyi (Snowbird) and Clyde, N.C.
It’s an ancient Chinese cultural norm, the kowtow.
“A kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one’s head touching the ground, as a sign of reverence.”
One Chinese scholar described the “full kowtow” as “three kneelings and nine knockings of the head on the ground.” It was commonly performed for the Emperor and commoners executed it for government officials representing the Emperor. Also, in ancient Chinese culture, parents, grandparents, and other ancestors were afforded the kowtow of children, even children old enough to get married. The Chinese philosophers believed that the kowtow position “naturally converted to his or her mind a feeling of respect” (Wikipedia).
In modern culture, particularly in American culture, kowtow is used primarily as a negative term. It is a term used to insult people who are considered weak or indecisive. It is a word that indicates that you are letting someone get the better of you and you are still trying to appease them. In a “dog-eat-dog” society, meekness is not respected or appreciated. In a world that thrives on power, it surely doesn’t seem that the meek will inherit the earth.
I was once criticized for pointing out that elected officials are public servants. There isn’t a place in Cherokee history where our leaders were considered gods or kings. Particularly since the tribal adoption of democratic government, the idea of supreme beings doesn’t fit who we are. And while leaders (town, county, state, federal, tribal) deserve the respect due to every person who commits to serving the public, maybe kowtowing to them is inappropriate.
I ran across training on LinkedIn that professes to teach Indian core values. The author is Willie Wolf of Red Road Leadership Consulting. He claims to have gleaned these values from research in tribal communities and historical documents. Wolf describes good leaders in American indigenous tribes.
“They know what their source of power is and they do not abuse that power. Sharing power is one of their best attributes and they are very quick to raise others up who demonstrate their ability to take on leadership roles. They empower everyone around them, and this permeates the entire Tribal government staff.
“Native emotional intelligence is highly developed in these leaders. They are very self-aware, and they have a very (high) level of compassion for others. They have a gift of knowing when the people need something and if they are in a position to help them, they do so. It may be offering a word of encouragement or something more significant like providing support for someone who is going through a difficult time. They understand people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
“Servant leadership is part of their DNA. These leaders are always putting others first. Traditionally, our leaders would never ask others to do anything they are not willing to do themselves. And because they always think about how their actions will impact the people, they never do anything that is not in their best interests. One of the best examples I saw of servant leadership was when I was a keynote speaker for a conference on the White Earth reservation and the Tribal Chairman spoke, as many do to start it off. Then he stayed around the entire three days and during the breaks you could see him bringing coffee to people and engaging them in conversation. He was a man of the people for sure.”
True leadership is not about being served, but how well you can serve. At the One Feather, my role is not that of a dictator, but a facilitator. My debt of service is not to the system that hired me, but to the tribal community and readership, and to the team that I supervise. It is my responsibility to ensure that the EBCI community gets everything that they should expect and get, according to the Cherokee Code. It is also my responsibility to provide the environment and resources that the One Feather team needs so that they may provide for that shared goal of good service to the community and do so with respect and meeting a high ethical standard.
And so, it should be with anyone who chooses public service as a profession, whether elected or hired. Leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and walks of life. I have seen some examples of servant leadership from the housekeeping staff in the Ginger Lynn Welch Complex that would rival much of the behavior of workers of seemingly higher rank in tribal government. These public servants care about the quality of the work they do, and it shows in what they produce. While some jobs may not have glamour, there is always dignity and purpose. Every “leader” in our tribal government, all of us, should know and show good customer service skills. And just who is our customer? Everyone we encounter. Coworkers and community clients meet the definition of our customer.
For example, when you have meeting plans, whether you are the initiator or the attendee, it is discourteous to arrive late without notification of the other party. We should consider other people’s time a currency, a valuable item that once they expend it, they may never get back. When we squander people’s time, we steal a treasure from them. And while we are in meetings with people, be it an informal lunch meeting or a Tribal Council session, it is a poor public servant who isn’t attentive to people in the meeting. Mobile phones have bred some of the more discourteous behavior the community has seen in most walks of life.
There is no reason that anyone in our community should have to kowtow to anyone in leadership for the fair treatment of a fellow member of our tribe. Remember those Cherokee core values that our people hold dear? Two of those are: “Group harmony in community and kin relationships, and freely sharing and giving time, talent, and treasure” and “Strong individual character, with integrity, honesty, perseverance, courage, respect, trust, honor, and humility”. Every member of our tribe deserves respect, not worship, standing among brothers and sisters, not kneeling before a system. And that applies even if you are not considered a good old boy or girl.
