Notes on Leadership

Review of Janet E. Chute. The Legacy of Shingwaukonse: A Century of Native Leadership.

In addition to maintaining a balance, Ojibwa leaders were expected to maintain "reciprocal responsibility" with their followers (p. 18). Hence, Shingwaukonse, Ogista or Buhkwujjenene would not have been accepted as leaders had they assumed an agenda of personal aggrandizement.
... A scholarly influence in Chute's writing is R. White's Middle Ground (1991). Through her grasp of Ojibwa culture and events, Chute demonstrates that the Ojibwa sought to establish a relationship with Euro-American newcomers. While White's work chronologically ends his study with the conclusion of the War of 1812, Chute extends the theoretical concept into the twentieth century. Therefore, desire for aboriginal peoples to establish 'reciprocal' relations based upon mutual respect has never ended.