On my Apple calendar, I was told that October 8 is Indigenous People Day. Although the day is still called Columbus Day, the new term is meant to honor those people who were in North America long before our European ancestors.

In fact, historians now believe that there were several million native people here which were part of up to a thousand separate nations that ranged from Alaska, throughout the U.S. and into Mexico.

I became interested in this at a series of museums we visited in Canada and Alaska. I came to both appreciate and admire these First People. So, as I tend to do, I have now read parts of five books on the subject.

These nations or tribes often had diverse lifestyles based on the land area they occupied and their unique history and cultures. Yet all these native people, regardless of where they lived, had similar stories about the world’s creation, natural phenomena and good versus evil. Some very geographically separated groups, like our Southwest Apaches, even have a similar language to the Alaskan Athabaskan tribes.

And all these Indigenous or First People had issues establishing and transferring leadership and maintaining and spreading their culture. Just like our organizations do today. Only this was way before computers and even the written word.

Because of this, I am using stories about the First Peoples to help me illustrate points in my second book. It only seems fitting to reach back over the past millennia to seek guidance and explanations from those who came before us.

So here is a sample of how I will tie this all in. This provides a lead story in the chapter on Mentoring.

Honor Your Elders who Show the Way

In the far north of Alaska is the Inupiat nation. In the winter, there is no light for 67 days. In the summer, there are 84 days of only daylight. If you lived to become an Elder, you earned it and thus should be honored. The First People all over North America shared that same belief. The young were trained or mentored by the old. And the wisest elders were usually elected the leaders of their tribes.

The Iroquois Council, at its peak, consisted of six tribes, that working together, controlled our entire Northeast and part of the Midwest. The Council had devised a unique set of rules to govern both their overall territory and their individual tribes. Their system of government was studied by Benjamin Franklin and became the general framework for our emerging nation. And, although the Council Elders were all men, they were chosen, and could be removed, by the women of each tribe.

Fascinating and true. But I could not help but notice that old Ben did not include the part about the women in each tribe have the final power!

So think about our nation’s real First People as we honor them with a long overdue holiday in their name.