Morgan Howard. Photo from Twitter
Morgan X’agatkeen Howard, the director of Yak-tat Kwaan Inc., an Alaska Native village corporation, urges Native leaders to examine whether paying dividends benefits the community:
Native corporations need to redefine “benefit to shareholders.” In most of America, shareholders are individuals. But, for Native corporations, it makes more sense to use Native values to define our relationship with shareholders and treat them as a group instead of as individuals. Consider Southeast Alaska. Under Tlingit social structure, the group (clan) is the strongest and most important form of identification. The success of the clan is more important than the success of the individual. This is one of the major differences between Tlingit culture and Western culture. Today, dividends separate us into individuals instead of groups. When Native corporations tell their shareholders about the next dividend, they usually describe the amount only as how much each individual will receive. They may leave out the total amount paid to all shareholders and just say they’re distributing “$2.50 per share, so the average shareholder will receive $250 dollars.” For example, Sealaska has more than 21,000 shareholders. So for them, a “small” $2.50/share dividend amounts to an enormous amount distributed to the shareholders as a whole. It’s time all Native corporations start reporting the total amount paid out only. Let’s allow shareholders to figure out on their own the amount they each will receive. This change would show how Native institutions value the group over the individual.Get the Story:
Morgan X’agatkeen Howard: Dividends do not define success for Alaska Native corporations (The Alaska Dispatch News 10/24)
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