complete

184bridge builderThings started to improve once Billy got a seat at the table, and JimWaldo found his niche as the go-to guy for keeping folks talkinginstead of litigating. My feeling was, better late than never.”The end of 1981 brought hope. Two days before Americans wouldsit down for Thanksgiving dinner, corporate heavyweights and twodozen tribal leaders sat down for lunch at the Washington AthleticClub in Seattle. Nerves were frayed, recalls Waldo, especially amongthe tribes. “What’s the harm in a meeting?” Billy had asked. “What’swrong with talking with these folks?”“At that time in tribal country, negotiating with the folks on theoutside, meant that they had something valuable that someone elsewas about to take away from them,” Waldo says. “There were politicalrisks for tribal leaders, even in sitting down and negotiating. Youwouldn’t think of that if you came from a different culture. But if youthink about theirs, and how poorly any treaty agreement that they’dever made had worked out, it actually made a lot of sense. They werewilling to meet; but they were very nervous. We could not call it anegotiation.”Astute facilitators recognize how seating arrangements impactgroup dynamics. At the Washington Athletic Club, Waldo and Billysat tribal leaders next to business heads. “Well, what happened, ofcourse, is that they started talking,” Waldo recalls. “All of thesepeople hadn’t made it as far as they had as tribal leaders or businessleaders by being inept. So they start out, ‘Tell me about your tribe oryour business? What’s your family situation?’ Then they startedtalking about their kids and playing ball and whatever else. It wasquite animated. Of course, the tribal people, Billy being one of them,were quite eloquent. You could see they were having quite an impacton the business folks. They were talking about how important salmonhave been and are to them, and why. The business leaders wereresponding to that and saying we have no need to harm your interest,but we just want to be able to go on about our work.”Slowly, executives and Native leaders peeled off from the room