Employers need attitude change say U of Lethbridge professors

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Southern Alberta employers need to gain a better understanding of the Blood tribe culture and the Blackfoot language, two University of Lethbridge professors say.

LeRoy Little Bear said Natives are more likely to be productive employees if they're able to work in a less structured environment.

"(Employers should) put Native people into jobs, which don't say you have to be here at 8:00 in the morning and sign out at 5:00 p.m.," said Little Bear recently at a noon-hour forum on employment opportunities for Natives at Lethbridge Public Library sponsored by the Friends of Liberal Education at the University of Lethbridge.

Little Bear spoke with Tony Hall, another professor of Native America studies at the U of L.

Little Bear said he's often heard employers say Indians are good workers, but they either come to work late or just don't show up for work.

Employers - which he likened to hockey coaches - would have more success if they knew how to use their "players" more effectively.

Little Bear said Natives are more suited to be "jack-of-all-trades and handymen" rather than assembly-line workers.

A fundamental difference between non-Native and Native employees is the Native "is able to adapt to new situations."

The knowledge an employer must learn includes the Blackfoot language, which Hall feels is in jeopardy of fading into obscurity.

"This is genocidal," said Hall, about the growing numbers of Blood children who, in the white man's school system, are learning English while forgetting their own Blood culture and language.

"I can't find words to describe my outrage."

Little Bear said the difference in language is extreme -- Blackfoot emphasizes verbs while English emphasizes nouns.

"Language itself is a very important factor," he said.

He said a non-Native would gain a better understanding of a Native's thinking process if he knew the language.

Hall said southern Alberta Natives are still being ostracized by business which is evidenced by an 80 per cent unemployment rate for Blood reserve residents.

Even at the university, employment of Natives is nil outside the Native American studies program, he said.

"What we have here is apartheid of the mind."