Company delivers cultural sensitivity

Culturally sensitive company builds up Indian countryIn 1999, Kitchell executive Brad Gable, now the vice president of Kitchell's Native American division, founded the division with the idea of providing specially trained people to attend to the unique needs of Indian country dealing with sovereignty issues, special tax situations and the variety of cultural diversity among the tribes.

"Someone who is not familiar with Indian culture can come onto a reservation and can be offensive, overbearing and disrespectful, thus turning off clients in Indian country. So Brad decided a division of Kitchell should be developed specifically for that purpose. We hire people specifically for Native American work; train them for cultural sensitivity in classes. We bring in speakers and have biweekly sessions to talk about various things in Indian country. We get videos and we have a library. We hire lawyers and consultants to come in and talk about different aspects of Native culture and talk about legal issues from way back when and how it all evolved and why we are the way we are, we meaning Native Americans," Begay said.