Yelling “Jack! Jack! Jack!” into the phone while interviewing Jack Fiddler triggered my memory of the movie The Titanic. In the movie, the Rose character yells “Jack!” a lot, which bugged me. Anyway, because Fiddler is a little hard of hearing due to illness, I had to yell “Jack!” a lot, too. Later, the comparison seemed even more fitting when I realized that Fiddler had experienced his own titanic battle 33 years ago. Fiddler belonged to a small group on the Turtle Mountain Reservation that created the reservation college. The obstacles this group faced were titanic: overcoming the opposition of the tribal council and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Such a hard won victory must have made the celebrations sweet indeed when Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC) became a reality in 1973.

TMCC materialized because of the vision of a small group of American Indians. One of those people is Fiddler, who to this day, still serves on the college’s board of trustees.  Fiddler was born June 12, 1920, on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, in Belcourt, ND, where he attended school during his early years. Later, he attended school at Wahpeton, ND, and Flandreau, SD; North Dakota State University’s Park River Agricultural College; and University of North Dakota. Although Fiddler holds no official degree, he believes the years he spent in college plus his experiences in corporate management probably add up to the equivalent of a doctoral degree.

His dedication to Indians as a whole as well as to Indian education are evidenced by his roles as a founding member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and his early work in the Fargo, ND, area helping to form an Indian center, White Buffalo Council, which helped American Indians who moved there as part of the relocation program. Today it is the Consolidated Indian Program

Fiddler’s corporate management career began in the late 1940s when he answered a newspaper ad for the Crane Company. The Minnesota-based manufacturer hired him on the spot. Twelve years later, he left Crane for a position at Western Autoparts, where he worked for another 10 years.

His 40-year career in corporate management and his education served him well when his group started organizing ideas for the tribal college in the 1960s.  Describing their titanic struggle, which began in earnest in 1969, Fiddler said they presented the first college proposal to an unimpressed tribal council. At that time, most council members were not educated enough to see the value of it. Couple that attitude with the BIA’s system of government, where Indians are treated like children who must ask for permission, and ideas become problems. Under such a system, leadership as a fundamental belief cannot be taught with any kind of sincerity.

“We were always having to ask for permission to do anything,” he explained.  “So when we went to them about starting a college, mainly, they didn’t want anything to do with us. Clearly they weren’t going to do anything about it, so we just took the bull by the horns and ran with it!”

Those with graduate degrees formed a research and development committee that succeeded in staying separate from the tribal council. This first act proved critical to their eventual success. “That’s how we set it up, like a corporation. We had a board of trustees and a board of directors. They hired the president, and then the president hired his staff. Each worked as a kind of check and balance.” Fiddler has no doubt this system is responsible for the early success of TMCC as a junior college and to its four-year college status today.

Now chairman of the TMCC Board of Trustees, Fiddler has served the college for 32 years. His leadership responsibilities include the orientation given to new TMCC faculty and staff. “We sit down and explain to them how the college functions as a whole unit. It helps them see and understand how they will fit in.”

Leaders must possess many qualities, and chief among them is being open, Fiddler believes. “Leaders have got to be open and approachable…you have to care about people. Even if students come and ask you about some little thing, don’t turn them down flat. The number one thing is the student, you know. If we didn’t have the student, we wouldn’t have the college.” To help in student relations, the TMCC staff and faculty attend customer relations workshops. Ultimately, Fiddler believes if the students are treated right, they will want to stay because they feel part of the college family.

Fiddler’s life experiences off the reservation helped him understand just how important it is to make people feel comfortable, a key quality of any leader. “I was born and raised on the reservation and attended Indian boarding school. It was after I got out in the white society, then I started feeling like I was an Indian, you know. I ran into racism, prejudice every now and then. I didn’t have that before.”

Fiddler learned the best thing to do is get along with all people, and he knows it’s possible. “I spent a good part of my life working for non-Indians. I got a chance to learn both cultures, both sides.” Fiddler’s college experience also affected his view of the two cultures; he thinks it is where the two can meet. “Even in high school I felt education was a place where things could be worked out, where they should be worked out.”

Overfilling leadership qualities to the point of real life legendary status, Fiddler and the other tribal college founders are valuable role models. They have founded a haven where hope for the future continues to grow and shine with the visions and dreams of all the Turtle Mountain people.

Robin Powell is a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe in Belcourt, ND, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the communications department at Penn State University. She is a frequent contributor to the Tribal College Journal.