Good Morning, from the Land Of Pleasant Living. This was an add from many moons ago. Calling in from Baltimore.

Congratulations to the ten who are going to run for the general election on June 29, 2010

I completely agree with your thought process. I was the former Miss Blackfeet 08-09 and i utilized the position to attend, speak and listen at the meetings. i have had the opportunity to speak to the youth, elders and various community members. i have spoken to the council members and they have been very honest with their decisions and a lot of the issues that are existing within the council. I am 100% against rapid constitutional reform and open enrollment. situations like you have brought up are definite examples of the corrupt and irresponsibility of 'outsiders' and those individuals who are hoping to gain access and financial freedom by trying to overtake the tribe. But the problem when mixing politics with traditions is both are on different time schedules. you cannot rush tradition but you also cannot allow the political process to slow down because then we are going to be stuck in neutral arguing and debating over council members as opposed to the issues. I believe the council should be expanded to include more input accountability and there should be more inclusion of the honorary council. In reality, the entire United States is going through rapid change. If our council members are unable to think beyond our tribal bubble to understand and comprehend some of the situations they are putting us in, then we are in a lot of danger. How are we supposed to thrive when the rest of the world is failing? it is a matter of trying to protect our people from the ignorant decisions that are made from individuals who have stayed and gotten too comfortable in their positions. I agree that there are those few who the tribe should consider allowing to extend beyond the two year term limit but it should be done on a case by case basis. I have plenty of experience with the current councilmen and they have helped me to the best of their ability but i do disagree with the actions of a few. It is very refreshing that the people are willing to discuss the issues and listen because the Blackfeet have a lot of power, politically and tribally, and when that power is used in the correct form, the people can then be protected from unfair government and state regulations. thank you for an insightful discussion=)

Hi Latisha: No offence taken, my friend, and thanks for the thoughtful and intelligent response. I agree, but the freedom is already in and has always been in the hands of a few. That’s exactly why I feel like I do and with the constitutional reform people stepping on board, who do you think has a hand in that? The BTBC does, all of the way up to the elbows and from reports and verbal complaints that I’ve received from concerned tribal members the council has even made accommodations within the tribal office for the reform committee, i.e., their own office(s). We, The People, haven’t made them official. Like every other plan, this one really sounds great while on paper, but also like every other, there are realistic and urgent needs and the needs which I and many other tribal members see are that we need more viable and collective reasoning applied from with our tribal elders, traditional people, Medicine people and the general membership and more time before it’s finally acceptable, not an apparently impulsive move from the hands of a few wannabe leaders, their relatives and cronies, while the few currently consist of mostly “The Crees” and the non-enrolled from what I’ve observed. Attend a meeting if you don’t believe me and then get back to me with your thoughts… That’s my challenge to everyone. I’m like many others and believe that this is happening too fast. I’m all for positive reform, but give The True Nitsitapi a chance to think before rushing in. After all, you know our people and how historically, we like to take our time to consider and decide, rather than foolishly-jumping in… Bottom Line: We need more common sense applied and more time. Sincerely, Calvin Tatsey

hello, jus stumbled across this and found it very interesting. My only concern is in the past most councils, hands down, lacked the ability to follow laws, rules and regulations to the best of their ability. It would be unwise to sit so much freedom upon a group of governing people because it does eventually become corrupt, maybe not within every member but it does allow for it to seep through. No matter how optimistic we are and how plausible things appear on the surface, placing too much power in the hands of a couple of people and then an individual leads the way for corrupt dictatorship. If the people are able to limit the terms, pay and regulate the positions, then most individuals will be forced to act upon their agendas in a timely manner (their term limit) as opposed to dragging it out over a debt ridden ten year ride. Accountability does not always allow for convenience and with the state that we are in, politically, culturally and economically, we need to be tightening the reigns as opposed to loosening. i think that there needs to be a move in the opposite direction, expanding the council, limiting pay, and making the guidelines more strict as opposed to allowing for loopholes for hypothetical situations. I hope u dont take offense, but tribal politics is a budding passion so i cant often pass up an opportunity to discuss issues=) Good words and god bless

Thank you for the welcome, Gregg. Much appreciated. I’m glad that you like the comments and questions and for your information, I’ve added suggestions to the Forum section. Yes, I understand and know the immense creativity and intellectual capacity of our people, so I’m not at all surprised that the ideas would have come from among many of our tribal members. FYI: I’ve referenced the “moderator” within my forum post. I’m excited about the prospect of more features and profusely excited about blackfeetcommunity.com, as much as I am about blackfeetnation.com! I can see and imagine what would happen if a personal site -- even if it’s as intrinsically and intricately related as this site is to the tribally funded site -- were to receive its funding through tribal monies, ah, but although separate through mere net distance and the source of funds, the possibilities are endless and I’m sure that blackfeetcommunity.com will fulfill all of your expectations and consequently, reward your generous heart, my friend. The best of luck to you and to us all, i.e., the Blackfeet tribal members, and again, you are doing a wonderful job, Cuz!

And btw, Mr. Paisley is my father, now in heaven. I prefer being called Gregg.

Welcome Calvin, Your comments and questions are good ones. No, I am not the creator of the site, that credit belongs to the hundreds of Blackfeet than provided initial ideas for it. I am more like a temporary coordinator, just to get it off the ground. There are actually no moderator(s) at present --the username listed as “moderator” isn’t assigned to anyone in particular, but is used as needed by the behind-the-scenes engineers / web designers / etc, since the site is, maybe, 30% built (we have dozens of features left to add!). Over the last several months, I became aware of a need for something like BlackfeetCommunity.com. It all began when the Tribe launched BlackfeetNation.com last year and (as CEO for the Tribally-owned company responsible for that website) I started getting hundreds of great and thoughtful requests / comments / ideas from Blackfeet for features that don’t quite fit into a government-owned website. In my discussions with the BTBC they, too, had great ideas for a separate community site. But we agreed that it would be best not to use Tribal monies or resources for a website that, though of great utility and value to the Blackfeet people, provides a clearly non-governmental service, including personal / political / commercial uses (for example, we will have free classifieds, allow Blackfeet reservation companies to advertise, and BTBC candidates are welcome to post). So I decided to pay for the initial launch out of my own personal funds. In my spare time, I created the functional specs, did some creative work, and then asked a Seattle company (Desilet Technical & Design) that did such a good job for us on Blackfeet Nation to start building it. I am happy with the results so far. But I don’t own it and exercise no control over the site: BlackfeetCommunity.com belongs to and is controlled by the users --I just put in a little capital to get things started, and will continue to fund it until we find a way for it to fund itself.