Native corporations can help.

• Author: Smith, Tony
• Position: Alaska Native corporations

Alaska Native corporations, with the assistance of the Alaska congressional delegation, have done exceedingly well. Business success has given Alaska's Natives great economic power nationwide. With that, however, comes responsibility. At some point, Alaska's Native corporations will have to join in philanthropy. Now is the perfect time.

In 1989 Congress mandated the Smithsonian Institution to create the National Museum of the American Indian, the first national museum dedicated to the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The museum will highlight the culture and achievements of all the Native people in the Americas from Barrow to Tierra del Fuego.

As part of the legislation, it was required that one-third the cost of construction be raised from non-federal sources. To raise these funds, the Smithsonian in 1991 created the National Campaign for the National Museum of the American Indian. Recently the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation gave $10 million. In making the gift, Pequot Tribal Chairman Richard "Skip" Hayward stated: "Ours is a small tribe, but we have a keen sense of our own history and that of Native America generally. There have been many historical injustices perpetuated on indigenous people, including the slaughter of the Pequots in 1637. But we have survived, and we now flourish."

John Colonghi, director of the fund-raising campaign, is of Eskimo-Aleut descent. Though his mother is from St. Michael, Colonghi was raised in the Lower 48. He has attended an AFN Convention and is reestablishing his ties to Alaska.

This is, I believe, a worthy cause for Alaska's Native corporations. The National Museum of...