One of the bigger Alaska Native stories lately has been the congressional investigation of the federal contracts awarded Alaska Native corporations. Essentially, Alaska Native corporations are given contracts as disadvantaged businesses - or able to get the contracts without competition.
I haven't commented on this or the simple reason that I am honestly undecided about the whole thing. Some is that I don't know much about it (nobody... NOBODY wants me truly judging business and money decisions.) Some is that, so far, I can see both sides.
I think some of the publicity problem is that the Alaska Native corporations will, as usual, be portrayed as all the same. I actually really don't believe some of the corporations, the ones doing supremely well (and there are FAR fewer of them than you think!) should be getting the preference. I don't think they meet the spirit of the program.
But some corporations do. They are struggling, of benefit to a disadvantaged public when they succeed, and need the help. I don't know which corporations are all benefitting from this program, but I hope they do this on a case-by-case basis, not a sweeping generalization. My concern is that the decision will be the sort of reactionary thing that happens so much - one incident, or one small group, abuses the program, and the reaction is that everyone who looks a bit like them gets the punishment.
But again, I simply don't know enough about this topic, or the details. I'm hoping the investigation is more of an investigation to DISCOVER, versus an investigation on the premise that everyone is guilty already - and that they release the details in a fair and informative way.
Thoughts? I would love to hear opinions on this.
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Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Keeping an eye on presidential Native developments
With the pick of Salazar as Secretary of Interior, so ends my brief advocating for former Gov. Tony Knowles, or another Native-friendly, or Native person, to fill the role. My reaction was kind of... Oh? Huh. Eh.
Not that Salazar will be bad (I know only what I've read in the last few days), certainly, but he has no real record to speak of with Native issues. Unfortunately for Native people, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is lumped in under the Department of the Interior, meaning the other issues the secretary deals with will almost certainly take precedence over Native issues, and therefore a Native person unlikely to be chosen. Okay, maybe "unlikely" is not the right word... more like, never happened in the history of the department. In this case, it is not so much that Native issues are not important, I think, than the environment is THE issue. At least that's what I hope. A former governor of a state that produces children with oil in their blood was probably pretty unlikely (but it was a nice thought while it lasted!) In any case, though Salazar has become the top guy (outside of Obama) for environmental, resources, etc., he has also become the top guy in regards to Native issues. My best wishes to him!
Oh well. Obama is making good progress on the promises of filling top roles, especially to do with Native issues, with Native people. A Rosebud Sioux, Wizipan Garriot, was named as his First Americans Public Liaison. The position itself is brand new, as promised to Native people during the campaign by the big O, so my hopes are high that he will keep to the others.
Most of the positions announced so far are the positions "just" in the transition team, so it will only be in the next few months that we'll really be hearing about exactly what the Native positions will be and who will fill them. Before the liaison announcement, they said that the precentage of Native people in the transition team was 1.2 percent. While this sounds shockingly low to a Native from Alaska, where our Native population hovers between 15 and 20% of the overall state population, depending on the report, it is actually keeping with general stats in the U.S. for what the population of Natives is - somewhere between 1.1 and 1.5 percent.
Now some of what we are looking at will be the other new Native-oriented positions, including Native White House advisor. I'd also like to see a Native person filling the top positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (most of which has been done in recent decades.) I'm not sure if it's the President that fills those, or the Secretary, but fingers are crossed.
And if he's having trouble, there's a Tlingit woman in Anchorage ready to head to D.C. at a moments notice!
Although not totally related to all of this, here's an interesting opinion piece on "the how and why of Obama's Native support" from Indian Country Today.
Not that Salazar will be bad (I know only what I've read in the last few days), certainly, but he has no real record to speak of with Native issues. Unfortunately for Native people, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is lumped in under the Department of the Interior, meaning the other issues the secretary deals with will almost certainly take precedence over Native issues, and therefore a Native person unlikely to be chosen. Okay, maybe "unlikely" is not the right word... more like, never happened in the history of the department. In this case, it is not so much that Native issues are not important, I think, than the environment is THE issue. At least that's what I hope. A former governor of a state that produces children with oil in their blood was probably pretty unlikely (but it was a nice thought while it lasted!) In any case, though Salazar has become the top guy (outside of Obama) for environmental, resources, etc., he has also become the top guy in regards to Native issues. My best wishes to him!
Oh well. Obama is making good progress on the promises of filling top roles, especially to do with Native issues, with Native people. A Rosebud Sioux, Wizipan Garriot, was named as his First Americans Public Liaison. The position itself is brand new, as promised to Native people during the campaign by the big O, so my hopes are high that he will keep to the others.
Most of the positions announced so far are the positions "just" in the transition team, so it will only be in the next few months that we'll really be hearing about exactly what the Native positions will be and who will fill them. Before the liaison announcement, they said that the precentage of Native people in the transition team was 1.2 percent. While this sounds shockingly low to a Native from Alaska, where our Native population hovers between 15 and 20% of the overall state population, depending on the report, it is actually keeping with general stats in the U.S. for what the population of Natives is - somewhere between 1.1 and 1.5 percent.
Now some of what we are looking at will be the other new Native-oriented positions, including Native White House advisor. I'd also like to see a Native person filling the top positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (most of which has been done in recent decades.) I'm not sure if it's the President that fills those, or the Secretary, but fingers are crossed.
And if he's having trouble, there's a Tlingit woman in Anchorage ready to head to D.C. at a moments notice!
Although not totally related to all of this, here's an interesting opinion piece on "the how and why of Obama's Native support" from Indian Country Today.
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