Alaska's North Slope village corporations: the North Slope Borough is comprised of eight villages, all of which have their own village corporation to provide for shareholders.

• Author: Williams, Colleen Flood
• Position: Alaska Native Business News

Pablan (Welcome) to a look at the North Slope Borough village corporations. These corporations were born inside the North Slope Borough, home of the Inuit and their traditions. The borough is comprised of eight villages: Barrow, Point Hope, Wainwright, Nuiqsut, Point Lay, Kaktovik, Atqasuk and Anaktuvuk Pass. Each of these villages falls under the umbrella of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Each of these villages has its own corporation, as well.

NUNAMIUT INUPIAT CORP.

The corporation for the village of Anaktuvuk Pass is the Nunamiut Inupiat Corp. Its chief officers are President Mark Morry, Vice President Harry Hugo, Secretary Lois Yarde and Treasurer Larry Burns. The corporation employs between 15-20 people and has 150 shareholders. NIC provides its shareholders with services that include cable television, a grocery store, a hotel and restaurant, and a fuel station.

NIC also provides dividends and employment opportunities whenever possible to its shareholders. "NIC's plans for 2002-2003 are to remain profitable in these uncertain times and to continue to employ our shareholders," said Harold Shipley, the NIC general manager. The corporation may be reached for business proposals via e-mail at lburris@co.north-slope.ak.us.

THE CULLY CORP.

The Cully Corp. is a testament to the political power of Inuit women. Among the Cully Corp.'s influential females are Marty Norton-Awalin, the president/CEO for Cully Corp.; Patricia (Patti) Jones, the president of Beluga Construction Company LLC; and Martha Tukrook, the project manager in Point Lay.

Cully Corp. has a base office in Point Lay, as well as an office in Anchorage. The company employs 12 full-time employees and six temporary employees. Originally there were 103 shareholders. There are 89 original shareholders alive today.

The Cully Corp. recently developed a new subsidiary called Beluga Construction Co. LLC. Beluga Construction is 8(a)-certified under the Small Business Administration. It also recently received its Disadvantage Business Enterprise certification. The Cully Corp. has been competitively bidding work in the construction and environmental field for 2002 and 2003 and plans to continue to do so, according to President Norton-Awalin.

"Right now we have a couple of solesource contracts from the North Slope Borough in Point Lay, one is maintenance and operations of the water and sewer facilities. We also have the fuel operations," said Norton-Awalin. "We employ shareholders and residents on both projects. We also have one of our shareholders being trained through the NSB (North Slope Borough) apprenticeship program as a plumber and hopefully we will soon have an electrician and a carpenter trained through the apprenticeship program."

The Cully Corp. representative also stated that over the next year its shareholders will be working on the Kali School at Point Lay, as well as remodeling a few homes in the village. In addition, the corporation has high hopes of working with the North Slope Borough Department of Municipal Services in the near future. There also is some possible work anticipated in a joint venture with the U.S. Air Force, indicated Norton-Awalin.

Patti Jones, the president of Beluga Construction Co. LLC, is currently working on a belugaconstruction.com Web page. The corporation anticipates to have the page up and running by press time. The Web page will include information on both Beluga Construction and the Cully Corp. The Cully Corp. may be contacted for business purposes via e-mail at martya@arctic.net.

THE ATQASUK INUPIAT CORP.

The Atqasuk...