>Hello, allow me to introduce myself. I am a graduate student at the
>American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in
>Phoenix Arizona, USA. I am currently working on a group project for a
>Global Leadership class.
>
>My team would like to make contact with a Native American tribal leader
>relatively close (geographically) to the school. The project involves
>meeting with the leader to find out about his/her leadership traits,
>behaviors, etc.
I would suggest that you look up the nearest reservation offices and call
them, explaining who you are and what you would like to do. In Arizona
there is no shortage of reservations, as you know, and working that way
would give you your biggest chance of establishing a genuine human/humane
kind of contact.
If you were in Minnesota or the Plains states, I would also advise you to
bring some tobacco to your first meeting with this elder, as a gift, before
you begin talking with him/her. In some places elders feel they cannot even
speak to you until this sign of community and union with the whole of
creation has been offered. I think this is a custom done outside the Upper
Midwest, as well--and it wouldn't hurt, in any case.
I also have a question for you: What is the origin of the name
"Thunderbird," for your school? I'm curious, since that is also the name of
spirits that some Indians, including Ojibwe, hold sacred. Do you know where
that comes from?
Hope you can find someone to work with--
Jim Postema
postema@cobber.cord.edu