Native 8(a) Works

America’s War on Tribal Economies: Federal Attacks on Native Contracting in the SBA 8(A) Business Development Program

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:15:33 +0000

Published in Washburn Law Journal

By: Helaman S. Hancock

History has taught us that once something is identified as being valuable to Native Americans, the federal government tries to take it away. Congress and the executive branch have enacted laws, adopted policies, and declared war on America’s Native Peoples to accomplish such deprivations. The United States broke numerous treaties and diplomatic agreements with Native Nations and engaged in various acts of war to achieve the forced taking of land and other natural resources. During this effort, U.S. military campaigns massacred thousands of Native men, women, and children, displacing the survivors of their homelands and confining them to predetermined, federally controlled areas deemed otherwise worthless to the rest of Americans. ¹

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1 – Indian Removal Act of 1830, ch. 148, 4 Stat. 411 (1830) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 174 (2006)); see also S.J. Res. 14, 111th Cong. (2009) (noting that the “Federal Government condemned the traditions, beliefs, and customs of Native Peoples and endeavored to assimilate them by such policies as the redistribution of land . . . and the forcible removal of Native children . . . to faraway boarding schools where their Native practices and languages were degraded and forbidden”).

SBA Hosts Mentor-Protegé Conference as part of MED Week 2010

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:42:34 +0000

10 Small Businesses vie for National Minority Small Business Person of the Year

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The U.S. Small Business Administration will host a mentor-protégé small business matchmaking session Aug. 23 just prior to the 28th annual National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week conference, which runs Aug. 25-27, 2010 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

During the mentor-protégé conference, small business owners can connect with mentors – virtually and face-to-face – and learn about government contracting, financial, technical and management assistance, as well as joint-venture opportunities.

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Southeast Native leaders remember Ted Stevens

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:48:48 +0000

By: Ed Schoenfeld

JUNEAU, ALASKA (2010-08-11) Monday’s plane crash near Dillingham ended the life of one of Alaska Natives’ most effective advocates in Washington, D.C. The late Senator Ted Stevens funded hundreds of Native programs and village projects. And he played a key role in passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Bob Loescher remembers the early years of Ted Stevens’ Senate career, which began in 1968.

The longtime Southeast Native leader was working for the Tlingit-Haida Housing Authority. There, he asked for help funding apartments and infrastructure in the region’s rural communities.

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Ho-Chunk’s Morgan will receive SBA award

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:36:00 +0000

WINNEBAGO, Neb. — Ho-Chunk Inc., CEO Lance Morgan is expected to receive a national award Thursday from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Administration officials are scheduled to present the Region VII Minority Small Business Person of the Year award to Morgan at 10 a.m. Aug. 5 at HCI’s corporate offices in Winnebago.

SBA Region VII encompasses Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

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Source: Sioux City Journal

The Eyak Corporation Gives Record Number of Scholarships to Alaska Natives

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:22:46 +0000

CORDOVA, Alaska, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ — The Eyak Corporation is proud to announce that The Eyak Foundation awarded a record number of scholarships in 2010 to its Alaska Native shareholders and their descendants. The Eyak Foundation awarded 23 scholarships in 2010 to applicants whose academic and career goals included undergraduate and graduate pursuits, art school, and flight school. Since its inception, The Eyak Foundation has made it possible for 126 Alaska Natives to pursue higher education and specialized training through the award of scholarships to The Eyak Corporation’s shareholders and their descendants. Scholarship funds assist in the cost of tuition, travel, and living expenses.

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SOURCE The Eyak Corporation

Morgan: Legal theft of the worst kind

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:21:48 +0000

If you want to be involved in tribal economic development, it helps to be an optimist. I have always been the ultimate optimist and have helped build Ho-Chunk, Inc., a successful tribal corporation from scratch out here on the prairie of Nebraska. But lately what I have been witnessing as a tribal CEO, tribal lawyer and chairman of the Native American Contractors Association is enough to test my optimism, and I am now at serious risk of becoming a bitter pessimist. Can you still join AIM?

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SOURCE Indian Country Today

8(a) business trip brings Alaskan home

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:10:31 +0000

It came as a big surprise when Ron Perry, president of the National 8(a) Association, asked Layli Pietri to attend and be a panel member during the organization’s conference in Anchorage on June 22-23.

Pietri, 36, left Alaska in 1995 with her husband and children in search of a different life. This would mark the first time in 15 years that Layli Pietri had returned to her home state, where she plans to visit her extended family.

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OPINION: Native 8(a) program is working as intended

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:03:40 +0000

Federally recognized Indian tribes, Alaska Native corporations (ANCs) formed by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHO) are, and have been, eligible for federal contracting preferences under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) program. These groups are exempt by law from certain caps on SBA 8(a) contracts that apply to other minority small businesses because Congress recognized that tribes, ANCs and NHOs serve large communities and groups of shareholders, while other minority small businesses generally provide benefits to sole proprietors or small groups of owners. Additionally, it is a minuscule portion of federal spending. In fiscal year 2007, Native enterprises received less than 1.3 percent of all federal contracts.

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Certification gives small businesses a big edge

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:05:08 +0000

Eager to get ahead of the sluggish economy, more Hawaii small businesses are seeking out certifications through programs with the U.S. Small Business Administration that allow them to better compete for lucrative government and military contracts.

The SBA’s 8(a) business-development program, reserved for minority and other disadvantaged small businesses, is generating “high levels of interest” in Hawaii, according to Jane Sawyer, the SBA’s Hawaii district director.

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Doing small business on larger scale

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:08:52 +0000

There was no limit to the amount of help or advice a Small Business Administration 8(a) company could get in downtown Anchorage on June 22-23 while the National 8(a) Association held its 2010 National conference at the Marriott Hotel.

“This is a good outreach, and there will be more help to come for rural Alaska business owners,” said Karen Mills, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

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