Foundations for Success: Strong Community, Strong Family

A Free and Virtuous People Story

Editor’s Note: This article marks the beginning of an occasional series that will tell the stories of “ordinary” people who have flourished and contributed to their communities through the practice of everyday virtues such as courage, perseverance, compassion, thoughtfulness, and generosity. In the face of diverse and sometimes challenging environments or circumstances, they have demonstrated true freedom—the capacity to choose the good and strive toward the end for which they were created. They may never be featured on magazine covers or collect millions of social media followers, but they are at least as deserving of emulation as the entertainers, athletes, politicians, and other “influencers” who dominate the headlines. They are the backbone of a free and virtuous society.

In recent years, many commentators have bemoaned the poor quality of life endured by Americans of indigenous descent. As one analysis sums up the situation, “Native American reservations in the United States are disproportionately poverty stricken.” But this generalization doesn’t come close to telling the whole story of Native Americans in contemporary American life. Reservations can be and have been fertile ground for thriving communities that nurture strong families and self-reliant, resilient people. Evidence for that can be found in the life of Daniel, an entrepreneur in western Ohio.

Dan operates a telecommunications installation and maintenance business, specializing in the hospitality industry. Reflecting on his life, from childhood on a Mohawk reservation in New York to business operations in Ohio and beyond, Dan identifies one constant that provides the foundation for success: a strong community founded on a stable family life.

Growing Up Mohawk and Catholic

Dan remembers his reservation as relatively prosperous. The Mohawk agency, located on the US-Canada border, benefited from the area’s robust industrial base, which flourished due to inexpensive electricity available from hydroelectric generation on the nearby St. Lawrence River. Asked about the poverty and family breakdown that have characterized life on many Indian reservations, Dan surmises that his escaped this because of the economic opportunity. The industry in his region was, in Dan’s estimation, both “good and bad.” It was “good economically,” but the reservation was downstream from the plants, resulting in heavily polluted drinking water and detrimental health effects among the residents.

Even with the employment potential, Dan notes, some on the reservation “squandered” those opportunities and chose to pursue “dirty money” through black market activities. This was a bad influence on youth, he reflects, who learned to chase a quick buck and were consumed by the danger and immorality that lifestyle entailed. One activity was gambling, which was later legalized but was underground during Dan’s childhood. There was also smuggling of goods between the US and Canada. Dan recalls what he describes as “much lawlessness,” including occasional gunfights on the river.

When Dan was growing up in the 1970s, the Catholic faith was a big part of life on the reservation. The legacy of Jesuit missionary activity among the indigenous populations of New France dating to the seventeenth century, this strong Catholic community was nonetheless already in decline during his childhood, as he recalls. There were also many Mohawks who remained committed to the traditional native religious beliefs that predated European contact.

Dan describes his childhood as a “very blessed, stable upbringing,” with a strong family and community life. His father worked at a local manufacturing plant and his mother was an assistant teacher at a local Mohawk school. She taught the Mohawk language, which was “ironic,” he says chuckling, since he knows hardly any Mohawk. He regrets not learning more, but he noticed that his father had no interest in the native tongue, and he tended to follow his father’s lead. This dynamic also applied to faith. While Dan’s mother attended Catholic Mass, his father did not, other than for special events such as holidays and funerals. Dan regrets this as well, saying that he wished he had acquired an appreciation for the importance of faith earlier in life.

In Dan’s memory, stable families were typical at the time. The reservation was “very close-knit.” It was, in his words, a “country community,” in that houses far apart but there remained a strong community feel. Everyone knew each other and most were related by blood, if distantly. Doors remained unlocked and visitors were welcome. Throughout his childhood, Dan frequently visited many houses in the community. “All the moms knew me,” he says. One in particular “would see me coming and have soup ready” when he arrived.  He reflects that this experience was beneficial, providing “so much different exposure to so many different people.”

Although most Mohawk students went to a public high school very close to the reservation, Dan attended one a little farther away. Dan says he never experienced discrimination at his high school, but he knew that it was present at the other school, where there were large numbers of both Anglo whites and natives. He believes it was because the whites were resentful of the privileges, such as tax advantages, enjoyed by the reservation. For himself, Dan reports that prejudice has had no impact. Looking back on his adult life, he attests, “I have never experienced discrimination in Ohio, period.”

New Callings

Dan did well in high school, playing sports and getting good grades. After graduation, he went to a technical university in Columbus, Ohio, to study electronics. In Columbus, he met his future wife, who was there attending another college. They were soon married.

After graduation, the couple moved back to the reservation in New York. Dan started his own electrical business, installing wiring in new homes. While they waited for their own new house being built on Dan’s parents’ property, they began their marriage in a trailer home, where their first child was born. A second was born a couple of years later.

With the birth of his children, Dan says, his “whole perception of the reservation changed.” He suspects the culture there was in general not as positive as it had been when he was growing up, but in any case his assessment of it was more negative. Its flaws were magnified when he considered the impact on his children. There was also some “reverse discrimination” toward his wife and children, who were considered non-natives. Though Dan’s mother gave the children Indian names and their percentage of Mohawk blood enabled them to be enrolled in the tribe, they were not considered full members by their peers. Clan identification is handed on through mother, so without a native mother the children would have no clan. As child, Dan remembers kids who were not fully Indian “getting picked on,” and he didn’t want this for his offspring. He concludes this reflection with a laugh, noting the arbitrariness of such distinctions given the long history of racial mixing among the French, natives, and others. “Trust me, no one’s fully Indian!” he exclaims.

In his brief exposure to it, Dan had appreciated the communal aspect of his wife’s hometown in western Ohio, so the young family decided to move there. Dan felt warmly welcomed by some of his wife’s friends, and he began the challenging but rewarding process of building his business.

Sometime after their move, the couple felt called to get more serious about their Catholic faith. It was something important that Dan sensed was missing.

“I didn’t live my faith at all” through young adulthood, he laments. When he was younger, he went through a period when he was “absolutely terrified of death,” and he remembers pondering the “nothingness” at the end of life. He attributes this nihilistic tendency to his lack of understanding of his faith. Nonetheless, he had a sense that there was more. He always felt that there was a spiritual realm, some kind of presence that might be God or his guardian angel. “I always had the basis for a strong faith. I knew something was there. I didn’t know what. But something was always there, pointing me in the right direction.”

The impetus for change happened when his wife went to confession at the local Catholic church, after which she urged the family to make a commitment to attend Sunday Mass. This renewed commitment to faith, Dan says, was an “absolute godsend,” and he says his “faith has been growing ever since.” The graces that came from faith “enabled me to do the things I’ve done here”—raising a family, operating a business, and contributing to the community in countless other ways.

A few years after their move, the family bought a rural property, thirty acres with woods—but no house. “Back in the trailer!” Dan laughs, describing their situation as they worked on their new house. Even though he recognizes the importance of community, Dan likes the isolation of the property, highly valuing the privacy it affords and the opportunities to experiment with homesteading activities such as growing grain, making maple syrup, and—maybe soon—raising a few steers for beef.

The Virtues of Business

When asked to reflect on the success he’s enjoyed as an entrepreneur, Dan points to his inclination toward hands-on work, a trait he inherited from his father, who came back from World War II with expertise in electronics and had his own electrical business before going to work in industry. He also praises his father for instilling an eagerness to help people in need. Like his dad, Dan extends this helping hand in his profession as well, sometimes to the detriment of the bottom line. He remembers how his mother sometimes got irritated with his father for being soft on customers who had trouble paying, and he notes with a wry smile that the pattern has been repeated in his own marriage. When it comes to insisting on payment, he confesses, “sometimes I’m not a very good businessman.” He cites an instance where he donated his time to create and install the communication network for a local nonprofit, and he finds ways to “work something out” for clients who have difficulty paying.

But making money has never been Dan’s main motivation, he freely admits. In college, he had two options: the more hands-on electronics program or a more software- and technology-oriented track. He chose the practical route because he’s active and “I don’t like to sit at a desk.” In retrospect, he reflects, he could well have been wealthy if he’d pursued the software career. But, he says, “the money part over the years has not been that extremely important to me. As long as I can pay the bills.” He doesn’t take pride in extraordinary economic success, but “what I do take pride in is how my work is perceived by other people, my character.”

This point underlines the quality that Dan identifies as the key to business success: trust. His experience corroborates the conclusions of many observers and researchers regarding the critical role that trust plays in business relationships. In his work, Dan finds himself frequently in highly secure and sensitive environments. He has access to businesses’ cash and expensive equipment. He sometimes works at night, alone and with the keys to the premises. Instead of viewing these as opportunities to take advantage of customers, Dan “appreciates and values” being put in positions of trust and feels obligated to respect that confidence. Another dimension of trust is clients’ belief that he is competent; that he will do the job correctly and leave a satisfied customer.  

He tries to build his business “intelligently” so that he isn’t in constant demand. By using quality components, he constructs systems that don’t need constant maintenance and troubleshooting: “So I don’t have to babysit.” He also enjoys researching new technology and finding new solutions. One local client regularly presents new ideas and therefore new problems. Dan researches, creatively plans, and invents new systems to address these needs.

Faith and Freedom

Dan sees his faith as contributing to these traits. Christian morality, he says, means “treating people well, treating people right.” Honoring the trust placed in him serves his business well, leading to referrals to new clients. This is critical for his enterprise, he notes, because “I’m not very good at advertising.”

What are the advantages of owning a business? “The freedom that it brings me.” And the chance to be present for his children’s events growing up. Dan sees this as a continuation of providing the stable environment for his kids that he enjoyed. Family members being present for each other, he says, is “the way it’s supposed to be.”

Small business ownership also entails challenges. Does he handle the bookkeeping?  “Unfortunately, yes.” He finds himself “juggling a lot of balls at the same time.” There is frustration when clients don’t pay bills. Sometimes, he has a bad feeling about potential customers, a challenge for his “help first” mindset. “I have trouble saying no.” But he recognizes the need for discernment, and he has been learning, he says, to take these decisions to prayer. It’s one example of how he continues to strive to integrate his faith and business lives.

He also sees God’s hand in the ups and downs of business.  When things get slow, he takes the problem to prayer; invariably, he quickly “gets slammed” with new business. Then his prayer changes. “Lord, I appreciate it, but you can slow down a bit now!”