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Lance Morgan, J.D. (1993), Harvard Law School

Lance Morgan, C.E.O. of Ho Chunk, Inc., has set a new standard for tribally owned corporations. Economic development in Indian Country is a prominent issue that has gained national attention in recent years. Under Lance's leadership, Ho Chunk, Inc. is changing the structure of how tribes can conduct business. By successfully expanding economic interests for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska well beyond casino gaming, Ho Chunk Inc. has launched the tribe into the world of high finance. The Winnebago's tribal holdings now include hotels, convenience stores, AllNative and Indianz.com Internet companies, and the recent buyout of Dynamic Homes, a publicly traded company.Using his training as a corporate lawyer and his personal experience as a tribal member, Lance Morgan initiated Ho Chunk, Inc. at the request of tribal government leaders. He created the corporation by developing an innovative business model designed to overcome the barriers often associated with tribal enterprises. Starting with nothing more than seed money from the tribe, the plan on paper, and himself as the only employee, Lance has grown the corporation into a business venture with $20 million in assets and over 230 employees.Lance is an alumnus of Harvard Law School and commented that "Harvard played a critical role in not only who I am, but also my success at Ho Chunk, Inc." In particular, he feels that his Harvard training oriented his analytical philosophy towards examining the "why's" and not the "what's" of effective problem-solving. Lance also noted that he has relied upon some of Harvard Professor Joseph Kalt's research on economic development and tribal governments as a basis for developing his own ideas for Ho Chunk, Inc. However, Lance is quick to add that "none of this would have happened without the tribal leaders--all of whom never attended college. They are the ones who paved the way and had the intelligence and wisdom to make the right decisions, which included taking a risk on me."

Angela Gonzales, Ph.D. (2001) in Sociology, Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

To listen to Angela Gonzales talk about her situation these days in the academy, at home in the village of Shungopavi on the Hopi Reservation, or elsewhere, one might think that the truism "knowledge is power" burns brighter than ever as the fire in her work and life. Currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Rural Sociology at Cornell University, she sees her appointment as "an opportunity to have a real impact on changing the attitudes of students towards Indian people." As an Assistant Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University, teaching was "a bit like preaching to the converted," but in Sociology, she has "a captive audience" and a set of courses that reach to the heart of her sociological training. Her highly interactive teaching style has challenged her students to really synthesize what they're learning and to merge the theoretical and the practical in order to understand the world around them. She also works hard to help students find their own voices; she recounts, "Students tell me that this is the first time that they've been asked what they thought and encouraged to trust that their thoughts matter."Her empowering teaching is complemented by her research on American Indian identity. Her dissertation, titled American Indian Identity Matters: the Political Economy of Ethnic Boundaries, examines the ways American Indian identity is constructed and contested within three different contexts—college admissions and financial aid policies, the marketing and sale of American Indian art, and the federal acknowledgement process—in order to describe and analyze contemporary American Indian identity and the social, political, and economic consequences of ethnic group boundaries.During her time at Harvard, Angela found herself in an intensive period of rigorous training and academic acculturation. Integrating into Harvard culture was difficult at times, and she attributes her perseverance to the large cohort of Native graduate students who entered with her. They congregated at Read House, a place she remembers where "many of us sought refuge during our first couple of years." While a member of the HUNAP community, Angela and her fellow students helped to organize the Council of Native American Students at Harvard (CONASH) -- an ancestor of the current interfaculty student group HUNSA -- and worked to lobby for Native interests and issues at GSAS. The extended Native community kept her from feeling so isolated during the long and hard road towards a Ph.D.Angela's life as an active professional academic, a recipient of numerous grants and awards, as a published scholar, and a conference presenter and organizer is complemented by her sense of commitment and connection to her tribal community. Despite the distance between Second Mesa, Arizona and Ithaca, New York, she remains involved in the community where she serves on the Board of Directors for the Hopi Educational Endowment Fund. With the aid of e-mail, she stays in contact with family and friends, serving as a resource and conduit of information, regardless of where she is--thus she remembers the words of her uncle: "You take home with you when you go. You know where home is, and you always come back."