ANCHORAGE — An Alaska Native corporation will soon provide support services for the U.S. Navy in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corp. won the $18 million contract earlier this month, CoastAlaska News reported .
The corporation will manage maintenance services, port operations and waterfront administration for the base. The corporation announced a similar, $44 million contract about a week earlier for the U.S. Marine Corps air station in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corp. officials said it employs about 600 people. Most of the jobs are in other parts of the country. But the corporation’s hiring policy includes a preference for tribal members.
Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corp. is owned by the Juneau-based Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The council lists more than 30,000 tribal members in Southeast, the rest of Alaska and around the nation and the world. Its business operations are separate from those of Native corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Corporation CEO Richard Rinehart said the corporation continues to seek more work.
“I look at it as it’s like long-lining,” Rinehart said. “We have all these lines out with lots of hooks. And we’re out there fishing and by having more lines in the water, we’re hopeful to bring more home.”
