Let me state up front, I know precious little about Indian or Native American Culture. But I do have a few stories that make one think.
In the 80's, The St. Paul Companies, the current Travelers Insurance Company, decided to sell a product tailored to Indian Communities. The person in charge of this effort told this story. When they first started to approach the communities with this product, on several occasions they were offered some special deals, that he would describe only as "shady". There would be some kind of kick back to the agent or company representative. According to the long standing culture of The St. Paul, these offers were rejected as unethical.
Given that response, the tribal representative replied that then they would be glad to do business with an ethical firm. It was a test.
In 2007, we were listening to the radio in Hayward, WI, and the tribal council candidates for the LCO reservation were giving their campaign pitches. I personally heard the head of the LCO tribal council tell this story. In the early 2000's, the Ojibway Band at Lac Courtes Oreilles near Hayward decided to build a gas station and convenience store on tribal property that was across the street from an existing Mobile station. They could sell gas for less than the existing station because they are exempt from some taxes. They felt that they were missing a huge opportunity for additional income for their tribe, as they had a large client base in the customers of the Casino which is on the same property. But they did not want to hurt their neighbor. So they offered to buy the station. He did not offer any details of the price, but I assume it was a market price transaction. The owner refused to sell. The owner felt they could both survive. So the tribe determined to go ahead and build their station.
After the plans were drawn up, and the earth moving equipment was on site, they visited with the owner one last time. They pointed to the bulldozer and made their last offer. Sell or we build competition across the street. He again refused, and they built the station. It now returns hundreds of thousands to the tribe annually. Sometime later, the owner did sell, and the tribe now operates two stations.
Both of these tales are interesting views into culture. Again, I am no expert, but my general sense is that this kind of "tribal" culture, if I may call it that, has a much higher sense of inter-dependency than the "nation" culture. We are all in this together. We want to get ahead, but we would prefer not to do it at your expense. How can we do this with a benefit to all of us?
My impression is that the Scandinavian countries have retained some of this "tribal sense", whereas the rest of Europe and the U.S. has not. These northern countries were never part of the Roman Empire, or the Holy Roman Empire. They were never persuaded that they should "leave it to the king or emperor". They are in this together.
You can read a story about this Norwegian culture in my review of the book "Cultures and Organizations", which can be found here: http://scheiders.com/bookorg.htm.
Copyright 2007 Carl Scheider