Lance Morgan Ho-Chunk

because a man must make his own arrows--Winnebago proverb

"My own mother says I'm a necessary evil, the corporate Indian."
--Lance Morgan

it started as a simple business matter: The people needed jobs and nobody was providing them. Nothing is simple though, when your community is wilting under endemic poverty, when your ancestors left their footprints on forced removals from Wisconsin to Iowa to Minnesota to South Dakota to Nebraska, when your people have few options outside the federal government, when tribal politicians pull the strings on the local economy, and when the only available start-up funds come one pull of a handle, one rake of the chips, at a time. Or is it? Can a driven visionary entrepreneur change the fate of his people? In the case of Lance Morgan, the answer is yes.

"We've done it," says Morgan, "and other tribes have just as much talent as the Winnebagos, but they don't have the model...yet." The model is Ho-Chunk Inc., the $100 million tribe-owned corporation that employs 355 people in a variety of businesses including housing construction, hotels, convenience stores, e-commerce hot spot Allnative.com, Web design, tobacco distribution, community development, and Indianz.com, a news site for all things Native American. After graduating from Harvard Law School and spending two unhappy years at a corporate firm in Minneapolis, Morgan returned to the Winnebago reservation in 1995 to start Ho-Chunk with $8 million in seed money from a casino (although the company hasn't taken a nickel of gaming money since). "I don't think much of gaming," says Morgan, "but it was a means to an end."

The idea is no less than to create an economy, and it wouldn't have taken off if Morgan hadn't convinced the tribal council to break with the norm and allow Ho-Chunk to operate somewhat autonomously. (Ho-Chunk and the Winnebago tribal council meet quarterly and are partners in a business whose model is being studied and adopted by tribes across the country.) Morgan is currently embedded in an ambitious project to literally build a better community from the ground up. Houses and businesses are being erected in Ho-Chunk Village, a new urbanism/small town combination created to replace dilapidated, random government housing and where, Morgan says, "we can have a warm, safe place to raise a family, like any other neighborhood, except nicer and everyone will be brown."

Like most go-getters, Morgan, 35, has time for work and family and not much else--Cornhuskers football is one of his few diversions from building a 21st-century economic model for Indian peoples nationwide who have been shut out of the entrepreneurial arena. "We've taken control of our destiny, gotten a taste of independence, and don't plan on giving it up," says Morgan. "Government-led economies have been a total failure. I refuse to believe the Winnebagos are Karl Marx's last hope."

Ho-Chunk (which loosely translates to "the people") has spoken.--Patrick J. Sauer

Patrick J. Sauer is a staff writer.

1. Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
   because "optimism is essential"
2. Betsey Johnson, Betsey Johnson
   for her stylish life
3. Russell Simmons, Rush Communications
   for his powerful example
4. Scott Cook, Intuit
   because he learns, and teaches
5. Sergey Brin & Larry Page, Google
   for their integrity. And, well, for Google
6. David Neeleman, JetBlue
   for creating an airline fit for humans
7. Tom Stemberg, Staples
   for doing it exactly right
8. Jack Stack, SRC Holdings
   for going naked
9. Judy Wicks, White Dog Enterprises
   because she's put in place more progressive business practices per square foot than any other entrepreneur
10. Davin Wedel, Global Protection
    because he's a lifesaver
11. Pat McGovern, International Data Group
    for knowing the power of respect
12. Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, Pixar
    because we like to be seduced
13. Lance Morgan, Ho-Chunk
    because a man must make his own arrows--Winnebago proverb
14. James Goodnight, SAS
    for saying no to Wall Street (repeatedly) and yes to the people who really matter
15. Stella Ogiale, Chesterfield Health Services
    for doing good while doing well
16. Rhonda Kallman, New Century Brewing
    for seizing opportunity-- again and again
17. Laima Tazmin, LAVT
    because she's a lot like other kids--and then again...
18. Laura & Pete Wakeman, Great Harvest Bread
    for living a little --no, a lot
19. Andra Rush, Rush Trucking
    for rolling up her sleeves
20. Kathleen Wehner, Cirrus Aviation
    for refusing to quit
21. Frank Venegas, Ideal Group
    because he parlayed a little bit of luck into a lot of good fortune for others
22. Dan Wieden, Wieden + Kennedy
    because he's a true independent
23. John Sperling, Apollo Group
    because he stirs the pot, and apparently always will
24. John Stollenwerk, Allen-Edmonds
    for his commitment to U.S. workers. We also love the shoes
25. Mel Zuckerman, Canyon Ranch
    for showing the way

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