Army Awards $250 Million Contract To Tiny Firm Due To 'Alaska Native' Status

What do you get when you combine affirmative action with corrupt no-bid military industrial complex gubmint cheese?

Sean_6399: What do you get when you combine affirmative action with

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Hardly unique. The ill advised attempts by federal, state and local government to divert business to minority, women, and small business firms has resulted in the creation of pass thru entities where a person who meets the requirements skims money and the government gets it's political quota. Standard governmental nonsense.

Skeptical_Patriot: Hardly unique. The ill advised attempts by federal, state and

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Alaska has a budget surplus according to Sarah Palin, other states (primarily California and New York) do not need to be giving it more money, they have their own money. And doesn't Palin get her government healthcare through her husband being an Alaska native?

brklynivn: Alaska has a budget surplus according to Sarah Palin, other

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"I am very proud of what we have accomplished. All it took was a good plan, lots of luck, perseverance, people willing to take a chance and God's will to make it happen"

Well there you have it. Now gov't incompetence, fraud and waste is ... "God's will".

cyoohoos: "I am very proud of what we have accomplished. All

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gman87 ? 25 minutes ago (5:59 AM)

We always joke that a company owned by a female, blind, disabled veteran Native American is the gold standard for getting a US Government contract. Under the current administration, if the female owner prefers the company of other women, that's even better.

gman87: We always joke that a company owned by a female,

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We always joke? Who is we, that's really a pathetic statement.

observingstupiditydaily: We always joke? Who is we, that's really a pathetic

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And it was proven that under the former administration, all you needed was to be connected to the vice President... Haliburton (cough cough)....[rolling eyes]

Toddynho: And it was proven that under the former administration, all

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Was the job done well? If so, it sounds like a win win for all. I mean, the Military was able to circumnavigate officialdom because measures needed to be taken immediately, and they found a way to do that; and a small firm was given a much needed helping hand up.

Should they have waited months for three already rich and bloated firms to try and out bid one another?

Toddynho: Was the job done well? If so, it sounds like

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The job was done, but at what cost? For all we know, the $$250 million dollar contract could have been worth half that allowing this "alaska native" to pocket half the money it received. There is a reason contracts are no bid, and it's not because people are interested in keeping their profit margin at 6%.

cyoohoos: The job was done, but at what cost? For all

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"For all we know?": I'll need to go on a little more than that thank you.

Again, if the job was done and everyone was happy, what's the beef? Seems like all parties are happy, no one is accusing this "Alaskan native" (your quotations) of any wrong doing. Why presume there was some?

Toddynho: "For all we know?": I'll need to go on a

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER

tinyrainbows ? 39 minutes ago (5:45 AM)

I've been in Iraq for five years. I've seen all branches of the military piss away real money.

tinyrainbows: I've been in Iraq for five years. I've seen all

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This Alaska Native contracting has long been known in the military as a strong mechanism for contractor "empowerment", just this side, and sometimes over, the line of fraud, waste and abuse. It's widely used by military contracting companies throughout CONUS, outside of Alaska. Contracting companies often identify themselves as Alaska Native companies on their letterhead.

agxphoto: This Alaska Native contracting has long been known in the

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maveet ? 2 hours ago (3:56 AM)

"In summer 2008, the U.S. military had a major problem. More than 2,400 service members had reported being sexually assaulted the previous year, and the number was rising. Congress wanted immediate action."

But gay service people threaten the US military?????

maveet: "In summer 2008, the U.S. military had a major problem.

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER

tinyrainbows ? 37 minutes ago (5:47 AM)

maybe they were gay assaults. The article didn't say.

tinyrainbows: maybe they were gay assaults. The article didn't say.

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Tim Giago: A Day to Give Thanks Is Part of Native American Tradition

By now I believe most Americans understand that the creative stories surrounding the first Thanksgiving are, for the most part, a myth.

There are few Native Americans who believe this day meant that peace and harmony had become a reality between the Indians and the Pilgrims. Most Natives know that this was just the beginning of an onslaught that would reduce the number of Indians from more than one million to about 200,000 by the beginning of the 20th century.

Over the years I have heard many stories about the psychological impact of Thanksgiving celebrations at schools where a few Native Americans attended classes with predominantly white students. Recalling her school days in Kansas, one Caddo Indian lady said, "All of the kids, except me and two other Native Americans, showed up in class wearing cardboard feathers with their faces painted in various colors. The white kids put their hands over their mouths and whooped and ran around the classroom making these awful sounds. We Indian kids were mortified and embarrassed by all of this."

She continued, "What if on Black History Day or on Martin Luther King's birthday all of the white kids came to school with their faces colored black? Wouldn't that be an insult to the African American students?"

But the day known as Thanksgiving has been accepted as a legal holiday by most Native Americans because the idea of a day to give thanks is such a strong part of their traditions and culture. There are "wopila" (giving thanks) celebrations all of the time among the Indian people of the Great Plains. A son or daughter returning home from Iraq or Afghanistan is an occasion for a wopila celebration. A wopila to celebrate a high school or college graduation is typical. When someone recovers from an accident or a serious illness, a wopila celebration or ceremony is held.

So the idea of a day of Thanksgiving has been a part of the Native American landscape for centuries. The fact that it is also a national holiday for all Americans blends in perfectly with Native American traditions.

According to my research, most of the credit for the establishment of an annual Thanksgiving holiday may be given to Sarah Josepha Hale. She was the editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book, and she began to clamor for such a day in 1827 by printing articles in the magazines. She also published stories and recipes and wrote scores of letters to governors, senators and presidents. After 36 years of crusading, she won her battle.

On Oct. 3, 1863, buoyed by the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed that Nov. 26 would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November.

Only twice has a president changed the day of observation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to give depression-era merchants more selling days before Christmas, assigned the third Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day in 1939 and 1940. But he was met with popular resistance, largely because the change required rescheduling Thanksgiving Day events such as football games and parades. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution officially set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.

Each passing year has brought a little more sensitivity to the way Thanksgiving is celebrated in the schools and in the public arena. History is written by the victor, and no victorious people want to put their warts on display before the world.

No doubt there was a time when the Indians and Pilgrims tried to find a peaceful solution to their differences, and maybe they did gather together to share a meal. Perhaps the idea of a day when they gave thanks for their existence blossomed at one point, but the possibilities of eternal peace and love soon vanished from the American scene and bloodshed, genocide and war were the aftermath of that day.

On the remote Indian reservations, families come together and share a meal. I vividly remember one Thanksgiving many years ago when my close friend Timothy Wetstone stopped by my house to play. He said, "Boy am I full. We had a big dinner of hot dogs and beans." Well, to Tim that meal was probably an exceptionally good meal compared to his usual fare. I'm afraid that our meal that day didn't exactly have all of the trimmings of a typical Thanksgiving dinner either, because most of the time we survived on red beans and rice. We were thankful to have that.

For families around this great country celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope your day of "wopila" is a good one.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1990. His weekly column won the H. L. Mencken Award in 1985. He was the first Native American ever inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com.

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