Developing Leadership in American Indian Youth

by Virginia Drywater-Whitekiller

To Jack Soto, director of the Washington Internships for Native Students (WINS) Program (see sidebar), defining leadership goes much further than a flat, linear explanation, and it can become even more complicated when approaching it from an American Indian perspective. With heritage from the Navajo/ Cocopah tribes, he recognizes that diversity is commonplace among tribal cultures; that what may ring true for some can be different with others. As Indians, he states, we can be prone to disconnect from the fact that we had a world prior to European colonization, and reconciling who we are as individuals and as Indian people is important to our concept of leadership. When viewing this journey through historical and contemporary accounts, a perpetual struggle is found that is ever evolving.

Jack Soto at WINS summer powwow

Along with the difficulty of expounding upon the concept of leadership, he further remarks that defining success can be just as challenging, as success in modern society can be defined simply by what is accomplished in the present. When this view is held, we can be kept from looking at the steps that go beyond the immediate, preventing us from considering and learning conscious decision making, all integral components in developing leadership. When speaking with Soto on this topic, it became obvious that this is something he has given much thought to, as he continues to uncover how this applies to his role as the WINS director and his own sense of self.

Community Perspective
As a high school student, Soto found himself gravitating toward projects that promoted leadership qualities, but he eventually began to move away from community pursuits, opting instead to follow more personal endeavors. Describing this period as a time of "rebellion because the community responsibility didn’t jive," he still found himself progressing forward, although his thinking was not necessarily civic-minded. While managing successful restaurants and catering services, he held a variety of roles, and views this time of his life as one that possessed personal and professional accomplishments. However, upon experiencing the loss of a close friend, introspection led him to seriously contemplate what he could do to make a difference in the world. Through time and place, he eventually found himself with a better understanding of what he could change and what he could not change in his life’s journey. Armed with this realization, he found himself thinking and acting more in terms of community.

Identity and Leadership
Applying his own life experiences to that of his role as WINS director, Soto does not view his past personal experience as being vastly different than that of the students with whom he works. He understands that as with Indian communities, what defines leadership and eventually success for Indian youth can vary from individual to individual. The difference, he notes, is the ability for the individual to be willing to place himself or herself in a position that results in fruition for them. For many young people, this begins with formal education, which according to Soto, is a personal endeavor that leads to conscious decision making. This also speaks to an important component of leadership development: identity reconciliation is to know who you are as an individual, and as an Indian. Expounding a bit further upon the concept of identity reconciliation, he challenges young people to ponder, "Why do we as Indian people continue to exist in this environment?" He points out that this can be a special challenge to Indian youth whose parents struggle with being disconnected from their Indian communities. In this vein, he encourages Indian tribes to offer security to their tribal youth by not negating the importance of accepting them if they want to come back home, even if they were not brought up in their Indian communities.
When asked what advice could be given to Indian families and tribes in helping develop their youth on the leadership path, he exclaims, "Let them do it! Be there for them, they’ll need guidance, but they won’t want it." He finds that leadership training for Indian youth is very important as it provides them with the opportunity to know what leadership is and how it functions. He muses that part of the tension for Indian communities is to articulate what they want from their young people and offer them the opportunity to flourish.

Balancing Past and Present
A particular challenge seen by Soto in Indian communities is that of the struggle which encompasses another question: "How do we rise out of our past and dare to move forward?" Too often, he has found that Native communities do not encourage young people to go beyond the realms of their family and community. Explaining this statement further, he goes on to add that considering the history of indigenous people having to compromise on so many different levels, Indian people can become comfortable in a zone of stability, which can result in little or no change. He cautions that with this potential for stagnation, we block our vision of knowing what our future will look like. As true leadership inevitably leads to challenging the status quo, change can result, and each person has the ability to change his or her environment. This involves having foresight into what our world will look like tomorrow while using introspection. However, for Indian people the key is to uncover the balance of harmony and tension of our past, present and future, while working together toward progression.

In his work with the WINS program, Soto places a special emphasis upon the importance of developing peer relationships. When the students are away from their families and home communities, support systems of peers are necessary. He states that as these inevitable relationships unfold, the students develop the ability to accept one another and begin to learn to rely upon each other. Soto also believes it is important for the program to connect students to Indian Country—and this quest involves looking at the life we have as Indian people, exploring all forms of knowledge, and using this data to look at who we will be in the future. This, he states, constitutes breathing life into what it means to be Indian. However, this holistic form of leadership does not come without costs. As he sums up in his final remarks, "Reflection leads to change, change leads to responsibility, and responsibility can evolve into leadership."
In closing, Soto describes American Indians as adaptable, flexible and always evolving; he points out the one thing in his view that is most important: "We are still here, still alive, still Native American; still have songs and languages, and we are still trying to reconcile who we are."

Dr. Virginia Drywater-Whitekiller, Cherokee, is an associate professor and the chair of professional studies at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her research interest is cultural resilience as an indigenous tool for American Indians.