Alaska Village Corporations: doing well: will potential revisions to the 8(a) program change that?

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: NATIVE BUSINESS - MTNT Ltd. - Company overview

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From a distance, a corporation with only a few hundred shareholders and a tiny resource base located in a region known outside Alaska mainly for its proximity to a long-distance sled dog race doesn't look like a good business bet.

But McGrath-based MTNT Ltd. is healthy, growing and planning for a bright future. 2010 will be the biggest year in the Alaska Native village corporation's history, says Tom Devine, vice president of business development. MTNT Ltd. is the village corporation for McGrath, Takotna, Nikolai and Telida. Although hundreds of people descend on the region 220 miles northeast of Anchorage every March because the Iditarod Trail passes through three of the four villages, total year-round population is less than 500. Consolidating the villages--Telinda has a population of three--gave them a longer reach, but the corporation's relatively small size is one reason for its success.

"That allows us to get all our decisionmakers in one room quickly and get things done," Devine says.

HISTORY LESSON

The Alaska Native village corporations were created under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Under ANCSA, 44 million acres and $962.0 million was divided among 12 Alaska-based regional corporations and about 220 village corporations to settle aboriginal land claims. The corporations have a dual mandate to provide for shareholders financially, and to support their social, cultural and educational needs.

The regional corporations, with their larger land base and funding, have generally had more financial success overall, although a handful of village corporations in resource-rich areas also fared well. It wasn't until the corporations began to enter the government-contracting field in the late 1990s that success became more widespread and villages became less dependent on resources, although many villages are still lagging economically.

THE SHAREHOLDER CONNECTION

The village corporations enjoy strong ties with shareholders and understand their needs and the challenges of living in rural Alaska.

Devine says one of the key reasons MTNT is successful and growing is that the board of directors, management and 363 shareholders are in harmony about the future of the corporation.

"In my 20 years of work, I've never had a group of people who have this kind of harmony," he says. "We have a board of directors that wants to make this work.

"We're in the same boat and wanting to row the same way and are accountable to...