{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Circle For Original Thinking","title":"Native American Leadership and the Art of Collaboration","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3945,"description":"Under colonization, traditional forms of inclusive, consensus-based Native American governance were systematically replaced with Western forms of centralized, top-down leadership. Women, who once held an integral role in the political processes of many tribal nations, were pushed out or marginalized. Then, LaDonna Harris came along. Working with Indian societies to restore self-determination, and working with the federal government to improve the efficacy of tribal sovereignty, Harris has done much to revitalize traditional modes of tribal leadership, including for women. Harris would be the first to deflect credit away from herself, because all her work has been rooted in collaboration and any success she has achieved is because of the kinds of people she has brought together. Her work has been a model for inclusive, participatory leadership. And that model of leadership is what we will be talking about on this podcast edition of Circle for Original Thinking.\n\n\n\nIn working within and between tribes, and between tribes and the federal government, Harris has effectively collaborated with non-Natives, gaining support for important causes, beginning with her husband, Fred R. Harris, a powerful senator from Oklahoma in the 1960s and 1970s, who was chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the late 60s and a candidate for the presidency in the 1970s. LaDonna Harris went on to recruit many non-Native allies and to mentor them in Indian ways of leadership that are not only effective for Indian causes, but could be effectively utilized in mainstream politics.\n\n\n\nHarris first met political scientist and author Stephen Sachs in 1990. Sachs was invited to her home after a political gathering and found her warmth and hospitality so intoxicating that he found it nearly impossible to leave. Reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains from Casablanca, that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship—and also the beginning of a beautiful collaboration on a wide range...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/vSyRjf6eirP2Ay2hIpmFdcThamdhULjPmKyxBxF0Nqk/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzI3NDEyLzE2NDE5/NDkyMjUtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}