Calvin Helin

CALVIN HELIN is a bestselling author, international speaker, entrepreneur, lawyer, and activist for self-reliance. It's an unlikely success story, from someone with an impoverished childhood, growing up in a remote Native American village.

The son of a hereditary chief, Helin's first book, Dances with Dependency: Out of Poverty through Self-Reliance, was based on his own experiences, and written to help eradicate the kind of poverty he faced as a child.

A six-time bestseller, Helin's landmark guide provided a blueprint to help Native American populations break free from "the welfare trap" of government dependence. During his extensive research for Dances with Dependency, Helin learned that the corrosive effects of economic dependency are not limited to the poor, but apply to other social classes, businesses and governments.

A leading authority on fiscal independence, Helin has been widely featured by national newspapers, radio and television addressing rising poverty and unemployment rates. He has hundreds of appearances as a speaker and expert source on destitution in the Native American community, which is said to rival conditions in third world countries.

Helin is President and CEO of Eagle Group of Companies LLC, President of the Native Investment and Trade Association, and Director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, GeoScience BC, and the Canada-China Resource Development Foundation. He has received numerous national distinctions as an entrepreneur, social activist and community leader.

Helin's mission of economic independence and personal growth isn't limited to adults, either: Helin also serves as ambassador of the SOS Children's Village. A fourth degree black belt, he teaches at the Shudokan Karate and Education Society, a group he founded in 2002 that provides free martial arts lessons to hundreds of disadvantaged inner-city children as a way of teaching them discipline, manners, self-respect, and other important life lessons.

He is a U.S. permanent resident under the special Native American provisions of the Jay Treaty.

www.calvinhelin.com