Tribal Council Statement

As our community grows it becomes more and more necessary for us to begin to provide for our own needs. And since so many of us face the same problems in our daily lives it becomes more and more apparent that we have to find collective solutions which will help us take care of people's problems and our common needs. We have already created a lot of new people's institutions and service organizations which have developed spontaneously out of the conditions in which we live, but our needs are such by now that we have to start thinking about how to pull everything together so we can make the most effective use of our present and potential resources.

A number of people from the community have been working to create an Ann Arbor Tribal Council which can serve as the framework for our future growth and development as a community of new people. We have been meeting and discussing our common problems, working on projects like the Community Parks Program and People's Ballroom, and trying to come up with ways to involve more people in community work. We know that there are lots of people who would like to do things with brothers and sisters but don't know how to get together. At the same time we are always concerned with expanding the scope of the Tribal Council so we can take on larger projects and get more done in terms of serving the needs of the people. We know we won't be able to create the whole alternative economic, political, and cultural life style we envision until people are in control of our own destinies, until we have self-determination. But we believe that we have to begin seek ing self-determination, and we have to begin by building concrete alternatives that work, every day. And we have to work with whatever is there now in any given area to change it as much as possible, to understand it and expose it for what it is.

What we are trying to do is funnel energy into existing community service groups and People's Committees to meet the needs not now being met n the areas of food, health, community activities, education, housing, transportation, and legal defense at least. The idea is to have as many people as possible involved in work with one or more of the existing organizations or the new People's Committees, so all of us can share in the decisions and in the work which affects the whole community. A steering committee is also developing with representatives from the different Committees and organizations so we can coordinate as much as possible and cooperate on common projects and brainstorm together about our development and possibilities.

Tribal Council also wants to make sure that everybody's views are represented in matters which affect the whole community, and we will schedule Tribal Feasts from time to time at which all the people who want to say anything about anything that's happening can have a forum to do so. The People's Committees will be open to everyone who wants to work on them, and we hope they will provide a framework which will enable the community to make the best possible use of its own energies, resources, and time so we can deal with our problems as a people and grow as a people.

Only by taking advantage of every opportunity open to us and working together to deal with our own needs can we come to have some control over our own lives and the life of our new community as a whole. All Power to the People!

–Tribal Council