Fellow Tribal Members,

These are exciting times for the Blackfeet. This New Council has made a clean break with the old ways that, for years, cost us dearly in lost opportunities and lack of progress. Worse, the old ways damaged our pride, image, and spirit. The days of sitting dead in the water while other tribes passed us by are over. For the first time in many years, the Tribe is hitting on all cylinders and is rapidly picking up steam.

Here is what is most exciting to me: For the first time in modern history, the Tribe is taking a comprehensive, long-term approach with the aim of capturing ALL key business and economic opportunities simultaneously. For example, new Tribal enterprises are being devised to capture tourist dollars from Glacier Park's 2.3 million annual visitors. Tribal enterprises are under consideration to do heavy construction, engineering, and sand & gravel, initially on and around the reservation, and eventually nationally. Several other Tribal projects and initiatives are quickly moving ahead on parallel tracks.

In the midst of this whirlwind of high-potential activity, I have a different role than most of my peers. They are mostly focused on capturing dollars and opportunities that exist on the reservation, but my job is different. My job is to go off the reservation to hunt, capture, and bring home jobs and dollars from large Information Technology (IT) and Professional Services contracts with federal and state agencies.

This is just a fancy way of saying we will be doing all sorts of computer-related work and handling various business functions for agencies ranging from the military to the BIA to the DOT to NASA. This is the sort of work I did throughout most of my long career, and it is interesting and fun stuff. And it pays well for all involved, especially by Browning standards. Most importantly, this work requires a wide range of skills, training, experience, and education —from entry level to executive and professional roles in science, technology, engineering, law, business, creative, communications…the list is endless.

That means we can create career paths for Tribal members that start them out in jobs they can be trained for in weeks (e.g. call center or data entry jobs). Then while they keep working, we can arrange training to move them into technician or programming roles. After that we can arrange telecommuting jobs while they study engineering or computer science anywhere in the country. When they are ready, we can locate them at project sites anywhere in the world and help them with relocation. Similar career paths will be available on the business side.

As Indians, we have something to prove in the outside workplace. We need to prove that our work ethic, quality of work, and commitment to exceeding customer expectations is second to none. That means that if you work for Chief Mountain Technologies, there are no excuses for second-rate work, and poor attitudes and ethics will be shown the door. We give Tribal hiring preference, yes, but here you are not entitled to a job, you must earn it everyday and in every way —just like every other skilled, global worker. Here, you advance on merit and performance, not on family ties or because you have a Tribal ID card in your pocket.

That is the way it is on the outside world and if we — and you— expect to win out there, we have to be better than the next company, and you have to be better than the next guy.

Chief Mountain Technologies exists to improve the lives of Tribal members, individually and collectively. For someone out of work and short on hope, the road to a good life starts with a paycheck today and a career path to follow, step by productive step.

Along the way, pride —pride at being Blackfeet and pride in yourself— personal responsibility, and accountability is what will keep us on track to making the lives we want for ourselves and our children. Together, we will get there.

My father, Avery William “Bill” Paisley grew up in Browning in the 1920s and 1930s. He enlisted in the Air Force for WWII and after the war he decided that, given the lack of jobs and opportunities on the reservation, he could do better for his young family in the outside world. So I grew up in Seattle, before my career took me all over the world. Eighty years later, Blackfeet are still making the same difficult choice my dad faced: do they stay home and struggle or leave and prosper?

That is a dilemma we need to eliminate. We need to create well paid, career path jobs right here at home so our smartest, most talented, and capable people don’t abandon us. In the wired world of 2011 we can do it, and that’s one of the reasons we chose IT and Professional Services as a way to get started: this sort of work lends itself to telecommuting, decentralized operations, and remote worksites better than most industries.

As it says on the Blackfeet Nation website, we do indeed have “A Proud Past, A Bright Future.” Our ancestors and elders blessed us with a proud past. Now it is up to us to make a bright future.

Gregg Paisley
Box 620
Babb, MT 59411

and

17517 15th Ave NE
Shoreline, WA 98155
(253) 709-1887