Growing up Native in Alaska is a collection of oral histories compiled for The CIRI Foundation. In my story in the book, I describe a time in the 1990s when a group of Doyon shareholders wanted to liquidate half the Native corporation’s assets.

“What struck me was [this position] comes from a culture where leaders give everything away. The more they give away, the wealthier they are considered to be. Keeping money and growing it, investing it, compounding it, is not a part of our culture. Throwing the biggest potlatch in honor of your relatives is probably the most honorable thing you can do with your ‘riches,’ and keeping it is selfish.

"So I thought, ‘If that’s the way he grew up, looking at a corporation that has over 200 million dollars in assets right now, has a portfolio well over 130 million, it doesn’t make cultural sense.’ Because to be wealthy is to give everything away to people you love in honor of somebody you love – sharing and giving. And the Western business concept of investing and compounding and re-investing does not complement the culture.”