Syieh Development Corp

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The company was given the name Siyeh Corporation after the Blackfeet warrior, Siyeh (Mad Wolf), who was known for his fearless leadership during harrowing times. The spirit of Siyeh in the telling of tribal elders embodies independent thinking, shouldering responsibility for the work to be done, and taking bold action. Because of this inspiration, Siyeh Corporation will continue in its efforts to expand strategically while protecting the environment, culture and tradition and will continue to be fearless, independent and true. Siyeh's name and reputation have lived on as there remains a creek and a mountain pass in Glacier National Park , and now a corporation that are named in his honor. BROWNING — The Blackfeet Tribe watched during the late 1990s as its lone casino operation, a bingo hall in Browning, suffered a string of financial losses and came within inches of losing its federal gaming license. Frustrated by the red ink and a history of gaming violations, the tribal business council took the unusual step of creating a semi-independent corporation to manage tribal business affairs. The council believed that a profit-based corporate business model would work better than the old system that focused on creating jobs. Seven months later, under the new system, the casino turned a profit. Today, Siyeh Development Corp. and its six-member board of directors control eight tribal businesses, six of which it created. All of them consistently operate in the black. And the focus on profits rather than employment actually created more jobs, not fewer. Siyeh Development today counts 100 workers on its payroll, which topped $1 million in 2004. On a reservation where the jobless rate can hit 70 percent, those are big numbers. Siyeh Development's success recently caught the attention of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The school selected Siyeh as a semifinalist for a national business award. The university will announce the winner on Nov. 1. Some believe Siyeh Development might even be a model for other tribes seeking to overcome problems that commonly mire reservation business affairs. A difficult journey Establishing a corporate business model on the Blackfeet Reservation was not easy. It required the tribal business council to give up some control over business decisions. For some tribal members — especially older tribal members — that was unthinkable, and many looked on with suspicion. "The community generally assumes that the council should hear all and see all," said Dennis Fitzpatrick, general manager for Siyeh Development. One of Siyeh Development's first big projects, a 15-megawatt wind farm, never came to fruition. The corporation worked for a year and a half before determining that despite an abundance of tree-bending wind, the project wouldn't work. Siyeh Development faced another big test when a new tribal council took office in June 2000. Would the new council resume control of business matters? Would it kill Siyeh? It didn't. Siyeh has now worked with three different tribal councils and continues to thrive.

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