By ROBERT JUMPER
Tutiyi (Snowbird) and Clyde, N.C.
As a rule, whether tribal, federal, state, or municipal, if the government thinks the media is doing a lousy job, it usually means the media is doing its job. Good, ethical media outlets do not play favorites, and they are advocates and providers of transparency and fact. Facts are objective. They are undeniable elements of history. Truth, in modern application, is subjective and based on who is telling the story. Because of this, one fact might have many different truths attached to it.
For years, while working for the tribe, I worked in a political environment. In tribal government, as in business, there was a price to pay for not towing the company line. If the government pushed in one direction and you decided to pull, you could expect consequences. So, I did a little bouncing up and down the chain of command, with the accompanying reductions in pay and responsibility when my vision didn’t match that of my supervisors. Sorry, I digress.
But I believe, as a man of faith, that the Creator prepares us for his specific direction for our lives. With each change in my status at the tribe, I always felt there was a purpose and plan beyond any earthly command. And so, when the editor position became available in 2014, I was asked if I would like to serve there. At first, the position was presented as if it were mine if I wanted it. Later, I was told that I would have to compete for it. That was fine by me. I haven’t been appointed to a permanent position within this structure since I was hired back in 2002, and I much prefer to be selected based on merit. My intention in every position that I have held is to keep my head down and do the work. Accolades are great, but knowing that you gave your best and you did the right thing is far better.
So, in the April 3, 2014, print edition, I quietly became this paper’s editor. My career up to that point had been in sales, promotion, and public relations. So, I know what it looks like when a publication is controlled by someone or something other than the community. At the time, the One Feather was under the public relations department of the economic development division. In my opinion, in appearance and in reality, the newspaper being directly under government supervision was a direct violation of Chapter 75. There were times when the department would veto commentary, incident reporting, access to government leadership, and documentation. Even certain photography was censored from the paper. I knew at that time I was editor in name, but the power of the editor was in the hands of government. When content is censored based on the number of jerseys appearing in a sports photo, something is off.
I share this personal anecdote to emphasize the dedication of those who strive to open the lines of communication and bring awareness to the struggle and consequences that the quest for transparency brings. The fact that many tribal leaders, members of the tribal media, and community members are still fighting that good fight speaks to the importance of governmental transparency and community awareness.
We sometimes underestimate the power of censorship, because we underestimate the power of public perception. Fear is a powerful motivator. And loss of control is a powerful fear, whether that loss is real or perceived. I got it. In the times I have felt like control was slipping from me in my personal life, I have felt fear, sometimes fear so real and devastating that it made me physically sick. I cannot even imagine being responsible for making decisions for an entire nation of people, whether that be top leadership, overseeing a division, guiding a tribal entity, or even a program. I cannot pretend to know the pressure that is exerted on a person and the level of constant stress from constant scrutiny that they feel.
Add on top of that, we are not good communicators. We hoard information like it is gold. We take the old saying “knowledge is power” to heart, and we don’t want to share our power. Like money and other possessions, we feel like we must keep that knowledge contained within us because if someone else knows how to do what I do, then “they” don’t need me as much. For years, I was astonished when trying to push paperwork through the tribal system, only to have it frozen in place because “so and so” was out of the office. No one else in their program had the ability or authority to do that part of the process. I had never worked in a business environment that stopped projects based on one person in the chain of processing with a pen. The adage in the business world that applies is “one monkey doesn’t stop the circus” and, in entertainment, “the show must go on”.
A mentality of information and knowledge hoarding is part of what creates silos in organizations. Individuals hoard, and then that mentality infects teams. The silo mentality in organizations causes delays in services, duplication of services, and inflation of budgets. Just like an item, knowledge will be developed, bought, or stolen if a keeper of it is unwilling to share. The logic is simple. If you have a hammer that I need to finish my project, and you refuse to loan me your hammer (even though you may not be using it at the moment), just because you don’t want to, or because you think you might suddenly need it, or because you are saving it for a rainy day, or you simply don’t want me to make you look bad because I am accomplishing a project that you may have been told to do before, then I only have a few options. I can give up on my project because I can’t use your hammer, or I can acquire a hammer elsewhere.
Now, if I see this play out enough, I will start doing the same thing. I will gather my resources, be it a hammer or knowledge, and I will hoard it for myself or my team. I will do that especially if I don’t know what services and resources are available internally. In fact, I will just stop asking to use internal resources and make things happen independently, even if it means duplicating services and expenditures.
A former tribal leader provided me with a book on the subject titled “Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars” by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, Calif., 2006). In it, Lencioni, who is the founder and president of a management consulting firm, said, “Silos are nothing more than the barriers that exist between departments within an organization, causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another. And whether we call this phenomenon departmental politics, divisional rivalry, or turf warfare, it is one of the most frustrating aspects of any sizable organization. Now, sometimes silos do indeed come about because the leaders at the top of an organization have interpersonal problems with one another. But my experience suggests that this is often not the case. In most situations, the silos rise up not because of what executives are doing purposefully but rather because of what they are failing to do: provide themselves and their employees with a compelling context for working together”.
Have you noticed the number of websites and social media pages that have been generated by tribal entities? Before you get bent out of shape, I am glad that tribal entities are communicating via the internet. The issue is that when you set up a space on a media platform, it takes time and effort to build an audience. And if your space doesn’t routinely provide relevant information, it takes longer for that audience to pay regular attention to your information. Some users opt for paid followers, meaning the social media platform will advertise their space to push potential, and often disinterested, followers to their page.
Remember the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”? It is typically your organic followers – those who have seen your content and feel it is relevant who truly drive your social media pages, the ones who actually engage with your content. A problem arises when those who are charged with ensuring critical community information do not go beyond the limited audience they have on their social pages. They do not take advantage of the broader channels to ensure the most tribal and community members get the message.
I know you might assume that I am talking only of the One Feather, and we do have a considerable organic following. We are a tribe of between 16,000 and 17,000 members. We, at One Feather, would love to believe that we touch every one of our tribal members and everyone who lives and works on tribal lands. But we do not. And we are sure the smaller social media pages definitely do not. Because of our impact as a tribe, we not only need to reach our enrolled Cherokee people; we need to reach the state, the region, the country, and the world. For example, when I receive press releases from the state attorney’s office, they are copied to no fewer than 36 local media outlets.
While there are definite differences in style, philosophy, allegiances, and communities that we serve, media outlets by and large, particularly local media outlets, do not retreat into silos when information needs to be delivered to our communities. Whatever the differences we may have, the community and leadership come first.
Somehow, we must get beyond silos, fear, apathy, or whatever keeps us from the free flow of information that our community deserves. Being proactive instead of reactive in providing access to information would help our community be more informed promptly. Keeping each other informed with dates, times, locations, of important events well in advance of the events will give the community time to digest and prepare to have a presence. And when emergencies come, and information needs to be distributed to the community and region quickly, a specific protocol for notifying all programs, entities, and media should be as quick as sending a group email or text to those who need to share the information.
The CSU Michael Schwartz Library defines “politics” as “the process by which individuals and groups decide on rules, laws, and policies that affect everyone. At its best, the goal of politics is to organize our collective lives in a way that helps us live together peacefully and share access to goods and services we could not secure alone. It involves discussion, debate, compromise, and, above all, cooperation. Cooperation does not erase conflict, but it creates space to focus on common goals rather than permanent divides.”
For the community’s sake, it is important that we do not sit in silos and that we do not hoard knowledge and information, whether intentional or not. The community is entitled to the facts. Every time. All the time. And access to what belongs to the community should be as broad as possible. The media outlets, like One Feather, are merely conduits. Our duty to the people. It says so right there in Chapter 75 of the Cherokee Code. And we are ethically bound, along with other media outlets, to clearly and truthfully relay messages from government to the community. That is keeping our heads down and doing the work.
