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Director of Alaska Native Corporation Suspected in Rape, Alleged Victim Reportedly Dies of Suicide

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A woman who allegedly was sexually assaulted has killed herself, her family said.

The woman shot herself in Naknek over the weekend, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Prosecutors now are evaluating their case against Sergie Andrew Chukwak, who authorities say assaulted a woman Nov. 5 after a night of drinking. Chukwak could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday and it was unclear if he had an attorney.

The state had planned to seek an indictment on a felony rape charge against Chukwak, 45, who is a commercial fisherman and a director for the Bristol Bay Native Corp., one of 13 regional Alaska Native corporations.

Prosecutors now are trying to determine if there is enough evidence to pursue the case without victim testimony, according to assistant District Attorney Marianna Carpeneti. She said police are talking to witnesses.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Department of Agriculture Funding Broadband to St. Paul Island via Native Corporation

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending more than half-a-million taxpayer dollars to bring broadband Internet service to the 481 mostly indigenous people of St. Paul, Alaska – a community located 300 miles off the mainland.

“Without broadband, rural communities and business owners face a substantial challenge,” said Dallas Tonsager, Agricultural Undersecretary for Rural Development, in announcing the $554,140 grant. “In Alaska, this grant will bring the benefits of broadband, including new educational, business and public health and safety opportunities to rural residents living in a remote area.”

The taxpayer funds will go directly to Tanadgusix Corporation, the company that will build the broadband network.

The grant is administered through the “Community Connect” program, which is run by USDA’s Rural Development agency.

Community Connect provides grants to poor, rural communities with populations under 20,000 “where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens,” according to the program’s description.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Native Corporations suffer devastating loss of billions in federal contracts

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As I predicted in 2010, federal money to Alaska Native Corporations (ANC’s) has begun to dry up.  This year, the drop has been dramatic, falling from $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2011 to $1.8 billion for the first three quarters of 2012.

The gravy train for the ANC’s, sole source contracts over $20 million, took even a bigger hit.  These no bid contracts, illegal in the European Union and widely criticized in the US  due to suspicions that “illegal or immoral means [are used] to exclude competitors (usually by cronyism or bribery),” cratered from $2.5 billion in 2011 to $587 million in the first three quarters of 2012.

Why has this happened?  Because of limitations imposed after Senate investigations revealed that ANC’s “passed much of their work to large, non-Native companies, failed to employ Alaska Natives to work on the contracts and returned only minimal benefits from the businesses to Alaska Natives.” Sound familiar?

To make matters worse for Alaska’s native corporations in coming years, Senator Claire McCaskill, chairwoman of the contracting oversight subcommittee, is working to ensure that even fewer of these sole source contracts are awarded to the ANC’s in 2013.  Her objective is to “eliminate ANCs’ ability to receive sole-source contracts larger than what other companies get in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development program.”

All of this has led to additional workloads for procurement officials as many contracts, formerly sole source, are now open to competition.  But it has also brought significant federal cost savings, the objective of the budget hawks who have pushed for the contracting reforms.

Given the impending loss of even more federal dollars and the fact that their current contracts “fail to employ Alaska Natives,” what should the ANC’s do?  My perspective is that ANC’s need to abandon crony capitalism and join forces with Constitutionalists who seek to regain state control over natural resources.  Removal of federal regulatory restraints on resource development within the State of Alaska would spur explosive economic growth.  The ANC’s could then leave the federal handouts behind and focus on creating real, productive jobs for shareholders and other Alaskans.

The true power of self determination that so many Alaska Natives fought for at ANCSA’s inception is getting back more control over our lands here in Alaska, so that all those who live here can chart their own course, together, as Alaskans.