AIO Projects

Indigenous Leaders Interactive System (ILIS™)

Over the past 39 years, Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) has brought people together to discuss provoking issues and to work on complex problems. Experience has proven that just bringing well-intentioned people together does not necessarily mean that a solution will be found and acted upon. A group will not endorse proactive solutions or act upon practical action plans unless they participate in a process of dialogue, enabling them to collectively define complex issues. Also, the issues and problems Indigenous peoples face today are so complex and are mostly symptoms that reflect deeper underlying causes, uncovering the collective wisdom of a tribal group is difficult.

AIO is a developer and facilitator of the Indigenous Leaders Interactive System (ILIS™), an issues management process that affirms the value of diverse opinions, clarifies a group vision, and fosters ownership in the collective outcome. Through a specially developed computer software program (CogniScope™), AIO recaptures traditional tribal processes and successfully incorporates those traditions into ILIS™.

Indigenous peoples must be the primary participants inventing their own cultural solutions for meeting the challenges of the 21st century. AIO has applied ILIS™ in a variety of situations including the design of the American Indian Ambassadors Program.