Flathead Reservation
flourishes
Greg DuMontier
is one of many tribal leaders who have helped
the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes prosper
Story by Laurie Schroeder
Photographs by Gabriella Brown
A soot-covered wood stove sits under a cloudless blue sky on the
Flathead Reservation as
Greg DuMontier sifts through ashes that cover the land where his
home once stood. Hecarefully steps over bedsprings, enveloped in
rust from the winters snow cover, as hesearches for salvageable
belongings.
DuMontier and his wife, Myrna, pause over a pile of melted beads
and recall the loss of abeaded vest and belt he wore the day they
married. He squats to make out a partial wing froma nighthawk in
whats left of the beadwork, but quickly stands and moves on.
After
going through debris left from a fire that destroyed their
second dwelling, Greg DuMontier and his wife, Myrna, look
toward the Mission Mountains and discuss plans for the house
DuMontier plans to build as soon as the ground dries.
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Parked on the hill next to the homes skeleton are two of
DuMontiers most valuedpossessions: a 1972 Chevy dump truck
and a banged up 1973 Ford flatbed.
In no time DuMontier lifts the hood to inspect the health of his
28-year-old Ford relic.
Satisfied, he slams the hood, challenging the duct tape covering
the corner of the crackedwindshield. He opens the door, jumps in
and fires it up. After a few wheezes, the engine,which hasnt
run since before the January fire, roars to life and DuMontier yells
triumphantlyfrom behind the wheel. With a new light in his eye he
hurries to his dump truck. It starts as well.
Both of my trucks started, he says. Its
a good day.
Not all of DuMontiers days over the past three years have
been as good, though you wouldnever know it by his attitude.
Its the second home he and his wife have lost to fire. The
latest happened in January when apropane leak caused an explosion
that leveled the wall tent they had erected while theywaited for
a new home to be built. Now their temporary home is a St. Ignatius
hotel room.
DuMontier acknowledges their run of bad luck, but says with characteristic
understatement,
it is what it is.
We lost a lot that we cant get back and gained a lot
that we cant lose, he says, referringto their renewed
outlook on how the spiritual, not the material things, matter most
in life.
Its that attitude that gives him the strength to look forward,
to find ways as a tribal business leader to help guide the Confederated
Salish and Kootenai tribes to economic prosperity.
By all accounts, among the states seven reservations, Flathead
is the most prosperous. Its stunning locale abutting the Mission
Mountains and extending to the south half of Flathead
Lake helps attract tourists. Plus, an educated workforce and a
forward-looking, stable tribal government have helped the Flathead
tribes prosper.
After
going through debris left from a fire that destroyed their
second dwelling, Greg DuMontier and his wife, Myrna, look
toward the Mission Mountains and discuss plans for the house
DuMontier plans to build as soon as the ground dries.
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Its latest success is in information technology, an enterprise
DuMontier directs as president of S&K Technologies, the newest
of several thriving tribal businesses. S&K Technologies joins
two other tribally owned corporations: S&K Holdings and S&K
Electronics.
In the two-and-one-half years since S&K Technologies
birth, this company specializing in information systems and technology
has earned numerous technical contracts, including providing technical
aid to the United Space Alliance and NASA. In just two years the
company has opened five other divisions off the reservation. DuMontier
oversees operations in Pablo, along with Bremerton, Wash., Portland,
Ore., Dayton, Ohio, Warner Robins, Ga., and Houston, Texas.
We have to go out to where the information systems and technical
markets are, says Dermot OHalloran, vice president of
business development for the company. It was always our intent
to go out and bring jobs back. But we had to go out and secure contracts
first.
The Pablo corporate headquarters employs 100 people across the
country. Only 11 of those people work in Pablo, six of whom, including
DuMontier, are enrolled members of the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes or non-enrolled descendents
of tribal members.
DuMontier jokes with OHalloran, his Irish cohort, that the
company has the best of two worlds, the luck of the Irish
and the charm of the Salish.
S&K Technologies hires frequentlynumbers are expected
to increase again by early summerand since it is a tribally
owned business, qualified tribal members have preference.
The tribes are also building a well-trained workforce. Salish Kootenai
College is developing a computer program geared toward training
tribal members in this technical field, according to SKC President
Joe McDonald.
Joe
McDonald, president of Salish Kootenai College, helps to lead
the Flathead Reservation to economic success through education.
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We are hoping to develop a bachelors degree in a computer
technical program because there is a real demand, he says.
While the tribe cannot yet meet the job demands of all its members,
an array of employment opportunities exist at non-tribally owned
businesses prevalent on this reservation where tribal members make
up 25 percent of the population.
Flathead has the lowest unemployment rate among the seven reservations
in Montana, at approximately 20 percent. Rates at other reservations
often reach as high as 70 percent.
The first profitable tribal business was S&K Electronics, a
manufacturing company started in
1984. It manufactured mechanical parts for government agencies,
including tank heaters for the military and various circuit cards
that run an array of electronic devices.
Two years ago S&K Electronics graduated from a government business
program called 8A, which was created to give minority-owned companies
a chance to compete with large corporations for contracts. Since
then S&K Electronics not only made a successful transition from
government manufacturing into commercial manufacturing but also
built the sister company, S&K Technologies.
The tribe also formed S&K Holdings, which works with the Tribal
Business Information Center to help tribal members establish new
companies or expand current businesses. S&K Holdings generates
plans for economic growth and development and has contributed significantly
to the economic growth on the reservation. It helped the tribe establish
the Best Western KwaTaqNuk Resort, a hotel, marina and casino nestled
on the shore of Flathead Lake in Polson.
Robert
Much of the Small Business Administrations Helena office,
reviews contracts with Rita Matthews and Greg DuMontier of
S&K Technologies, a tribal enterprise born out of another
successful tribal business, S&K Electronics.
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Both S&K Holdings and the business information center are lending
institutions and also educate private business owners on all aspects
of owning and running a business.
The success of this newest tribal entity, S&K Technologies,
is not surprising. DuMontier has a track record of accomplishments
and is accustomed to providing the tools necessary for other peoples
success.
Almost 25 years ago he was working in education on the reservation
when the tribe decided to establish a health department. A pressing
issue was the need for health care education so DuMontier moved
to the health department and became an administrator. That experience
helped prepare him for his present administrative position.
His role in the hospital was to make sure the doctors had all the
tools they needed.
I didnt take the patients blood pressure, I just
made sure they had a comfortable stay, he says.
Now he makes sure that companies have the technology and resources
they need to succeed in a competitive commercial market.
DuMontier is proud of his track record but he and others are quick
to point first to those who years ago made wise business decisions.
I credit our business people that served on the council in
the past, college president McDonald says. They set
the stage for growth.
McDonald says tribal leaders made thoughtful choices, starting
in the 1940s. He says smart businessmen like Walter McDonald and
Walter Morgeau paved the way. He says those men and other leaders
regulated logging practices to preserve timber. Once reservation
land was allotted in the early 1900s, these men also encouraged
ranchers to share their small allotted plots of grazing land with
neighboring ranchers so they could all own enough land to raise
enough cattle to make a profit. The council also administered a
revolving credit program. In addition, these tribal council members
worked to lease the Kerr Dam to the Montana Power Co.
That lease and timber sales are the two largest profit-making operations
on the reservation, providing much of the capital to start other
tribal businesses and programs.
Tribal council member Carole Lankford agrees with McDonald that
the people are essential in building this strong economy. She says,
The consistency in the staff is part of our success.
Tribal Chairman Fred Matt agrees that stability is important, a
factor not often in play at other reservations.
It is to our benefit to not have a high turnover rate on
the council or in the administration, he says. Turnover
creates chaos and hardship on government.
Not only is the turnover rate low, but the organization of the
tribal government in relation to tribally owned businesses also
sets the Flathead Reservation apart from others. The 10-member tribal
council heads the government but it is not involved directly in
daily business decisions.
If you want a business to fail, have a government run it,
DuMontier says.
Flatheads government has close ties to its businesses but
it leaves the business decisions to the companys council-appointed
board of directors rather than the council itself. The board then
answers to the company shareholders, which is the tribal council.
Boards decide how much of the company profits go back to the shareholders
and into the tribes general fund. All programs on the reservation
request funds from the general account. Based on the needs of the
reservation, the shareholders allocate money to programs or businesses.
In its first year, S&K Technologies paid the shareholdersthe
tribe itself$150,000.
DuMontier
ponders questions from the Tribal Council concerning SKTs
newest contract with the U.S. Air Force. Behind him hang framed
photographs of tribal leaders who have walked before him.
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While DuMontier would rather spend all of his days in the comfort
of the outdoors participating in what he coins chainsaw therapy
or cutting wood, or spending time with his children and grandchildren,
he knows the importance of his role in the tribal community. And
with great anticipation of what information technology could bring
home to his people he eagerly leads the tribes into the new age
of technology.
S&K Technologies is on its way to making perhaps the largest
footprint in tribal business history.
S&K Technologies was born out of another tribal entity, S&K
Electronics, a manufacturing company. Fewer than five years ago,
DuMontier and his colleagues realized the government manufacturing
market was on the decline, while the information system market was
on the incline, so developing S&K Technologies was the next
logical step. Since then it has quickly crawled out of infancy into
adulthood with the help of its designation as an 8A business program.
It quickly won a contract with the U.S. Air Force working with
corrosion control. Then it landed a contract with the United Space
Alliance and NASA at Johnson Space Center, developing computer programs
for the space shuttle, designing United Space Alliance Web pages
and maintaining the server.
This March, S&K Technologies struck gold when it signed a contract
with the U.S. Air Force in connection with the Royal Saudi Air Force
in Saudi Arabia. The contract grants the tribal company $336 million
over the next eight years.
The Royal Saudi Air Force recently bought 72 F15 jets from the
United States and S&K Technologies will provide technical support
to the Saudis via the U.S. Air Force. S&K Technologies acts
as a middleman in the repair process. When a plane part breaks or
fails inspection, DuMontiers company uses information technology
to find the best firm to fix the part in the most timely manner.
While tribal members are enthusiastic about the business climate,
some express misgivings about ways in which its changed the
reservation.
Weve lost a lot of culture, McDonald says. We
had to jump into the mainstream. He explains the difficulties
in running a business and trying to attend ceremonial gatherings
that sometimes last into the early morning hours. He says its
hard to get the days off of work to participate.
A lot of tribal tradition is lost this way, McDonald
says.
It is not just the ceremonial life that is fading, but the language
is vanishing one word at a time. McDonald says the tribes
languages are seldom used and his faculty struggles to get people
to take the language classes offered through the college.
I think people think they have to give up who they are to
succeed, he says.
But S&K Technologies executives believe it can succeed without
fundamentally changing reservation life.
That is the beauty of information technology, you can do
it anywhere, says Rhonda Whiting, the companys vice
president of communication and education. Youre not
going to upset the environment. For reservations it is a real advantage,
especially for those who are isolated.
The advantages of an information technology enterprise are welcomed
by many tribal members who look to leaders like DuMontier to lead
the way. But DuMontier is uncomfortable in the spotlight and is
quick to point to the support and success of other tribal leaders.
Its amazing what you can get done when you dont
care who gets the credit, DuMontier says.
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