Camp Keeper’s Diary
How to Ruin a Tribal Sale — Part Two: The Dinner
Listen to the Camp Keeper
Jeanne arranged a meeting with an academic who ran the Tlingit Cultural Center in Juneau, Alaska. I shipped their plates ahead of my arrival. When the staff opened the boxes — with local press in the room — it was like Christmas with children. Copper shining with images of their own ancestors. I thought I had a sale for the entire collection.
Everything was fine until dinner that night.
Native Americans in Alaska organize as corporations due to their varied business interests — timber, oil, and other ventures that have nothing to do with cultural preservation. As is often the case, the corporation was run by a non-Native, usually a financial advisor.
At dinner, they described far-flung investments the Tlingit had made — including a plastics plant in Eastern Europe. Then the conversation turned to their timber stock and the problem of managing cash flow without diminishing future regrowth. Native Americans are savvy about preservation, usually erring on the side of protecting the resource rather than taking the cash. Someone asked my opinion.
I should have shut up entirely.
I said, “Why don’t you put it up for a vote?”
Silence. The president said all the Natives were only interested in their cash allotments and nothing else. I made a face.
The next morning, I went back to the office to close the deal. The head of the cultural committee was too embarrassed to see me. The CFO told me the Tribe wasn’t interested anymore. I called Jeanne and she read me the riot act. “You should never get involved in local issues!”
The deal was off.
Good ending, though. Many years later, I donated some of their plates to the Tlingit.