Excerpt:

This manual is written to and for our people. While you are reading this manual, you are going on your own journey of Nation Building . As you are reading you will think of your own history, remember your own stories, and dream your own dreams. ... The manual itself begins with a chapter on Nation Building and ends with a chapter on Nation Building . The first one introduces [this] concept and the ending recaps the process.

The first section, "Understanding Our History," is a general representation of what Doug and I know about our history as Native people. It is not intended to be complete - we have only highlighted some aspects that were meaningful in our own development. The purpose for these two chapters is to trigger your own sense of history and to recognize that we share many of the same experiences.

The second section, "Individual Work," covers three areas that are critical to an individual preparing himself or herself to contribute to his or her community. All of them require some sort of support from the outside world - either through support groups, schools, counseling, books, etc. - but they all require individual perception.

The third section, "Community Work," includes three areas that cannot and should not be done alone as an individual for Nation Building to occur. Developing a vision, deciding what to do and assessing whether those actions moved toward the vision are all done in a way that involves the community. There is very little "how to" in this manual, because it is our belief that people know how to do things very well already. This manual is an attempt to describe why we have done the things in the way we have for many years and why we won't participate if things are not done that way.

The fourth section entitled "Awareness Activities" contains two aspect that need to be kept in the forefront of what we do every day. One is a basic wisdom of watching for, guarding against, and planning for pitfalls to empowerment. We need to constantly watch for ourown disempowering behaviors and attitudes and we need to be aware that others are unconsciously disempowering also. The other - Celebration - is a necessity for Native people because it is an active expression of spirituality.

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