Here is a round up of business briefs from around Indian Country.
Federal 8(a) contracting
• Alaska Native-owned Koniag Government Services promoted Jeannette Morris to serve as Chief Financial Officer for the professional services firm. Morris previously served as vice president of finance and accounting controller. Morris will oversee accounting, finance and budgeting for Koniag Government Services and its 16 operating companies. Combined, the firms generate about $300 million in annual revenues. Koniag Government Services is a subsidiary of Koniag Inc., an Alaska Native Regional Corporation created for the benefit of more than 3,400 Alutiiq people from Kodiak Island region.
Economic development
• The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs released the National Tribal Broadband Strategy earlier this month. The strategy, intended as a “roadmap” for federal agencies and the private sector, discusses “the necessary actions needed to spur investment within American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.” The National Tribal Broadband Strategy focuses on seven key strategic areas and outlines 28 actions that various governmental agencies can take to help bolster connectivity, building on the work of the American Broadband Initiative. The efforts included tribal input and was developed in partnership with the White House Council on Native American Affairs. A BIA document outlining the National Tribal Broadband Strategy is available at this link.
Policy and Law
• Veteran legal scholar Robert Anderson (Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) has joined the Biden administration, serving in the role of Principal Deputy Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Anderson taught at the University of Washington School of Law and directed its Native American Law Center for the past 20 years, as well as served as an annual visiting professor at Harvard Law School for more than 10 years. Anderson previously served in the department during the Clinton administration as the Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs and Counselor to the Secretary. Anderson, who has extensive experience in American Indian law and public land and water law, started his career as a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund.
• The Biden administration has tapped Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) to serve as Deputy Solicitor for Indian Affairs. Most recently, Bledsoe Downes worked at the Winnebago Tribe’s economic development firm Ho-Chunk Inc. as Executive Vice President of Community Impact and Engagement, and as a professor of practice and director of the Indian Gaming and Self-Governance Programs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior and as interim director of the Bureau of Indian Education.
Energy
• Citing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indian Country, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it has reduced the cost share obligations for tribal financial assistance awards. The DOE made determinations on 28 cost-share reduction requests for pending or existing awards totaling more than $15.5 million in relief to tribes or tribal entities. As well, the department made determinations on requests from 20 potential applicants for Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs open funding programs for more than $21 million in relief. The DOE indicated that it was still weighing additional requests. According to a statement, every tribe that applies for relief to offset the financial hardship brought on by the pandemic will receive some level of cost sharing relief.
