Friday, June 6, 2009

Thanks to a generous grant from the Lee Kreindler Foundation, NBNY is becoming a model we will use to help develop transformative leadership the world over. NBNY started as a Fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2001.

Eight years later, we have fully honed a model that uses Native history, tradition, wisdom, and most importantly, culture, to teach leadership that can penetrate tribal, clan and neighborhood enmities, values and assumptions, and build cohesive partnerships that solve problems and ultimately, we hope, even un-write some of the wounds of history.

If there is something we have learned in the past eight years, it is that the cultural component of democracy and power is far more fundamental than the structure of democracy. It is that each cultural paradigm projects out of its history, and out of its challenge and response, a certain, definitive, characteristic way, a social capital or tradition of resolving problems. It is “The Lakota Way: it is the “Apache Way” , it is the “American Way” – it is, indeed, the way “we” do things, wherever and whoever “we” are; a tacit as well as structural path to resolution of conflict. If this way is not understood, if it is not included as part of the process of deliberation and balance of power, then any democratic vision will be watered down, diluted, and ultimately washed away by the flood of misunderstanding and anger that will ensue.

In his historic address to the Arab World yesterday in Cairo, President Obama continued to reach out of respect and insight to the next generation of young leaders, this time Arab and Muslim students; he stretched out his long arm of intent into the histories and cultures of nations that are as limited by their hatred and suffering as they are lifted by their vision of tomorrow. It is up to us to respond and follow his lead, and this foundation intends to reach out by partnering with the Muhammad Ali Center and others to help teach and support the dialogue and interactions among young people that create new space, new friendships, new languages of hope. Working with Greg Roberts, the new Executive Director of the Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, we will begin to explore ways to work with Muhammad Ali’s vision and example for a world that connects Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other religions in values and commitments that transcend history.

We know it is the only “way” – it is the way we come to believe in our own purpose to go beyond what we know as individuals, into a place where risk, where fear, and ultimately, where courage must tread.

We again thank the UPS Foundation and Lee Kreindler Foundation for their support, and ask you to do what you can to support this mission and vision for the tomorrow that our young people are destined for. Our first NEXT Training will be at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire this coming Fall, and the following Summer term. It is only appropriate that one of the nation’s leading universities (my alma mater) that began as Eleazar Wheelock’s School for Native Americans, be the site for this new endeavor.

We are excited and hope to hear from you as we move forward to connect Dartmouth and this foundation with an exciting future!

Very sincerely,
Nick Lowery
President and Chairman, The Nick Lowery Youth Foundation