Jennifer Lafleur

Visits to two Alaska villages illustrate the seeming disparity of benefits derived from Alaska Native corporations.

Alaska's Native corporations have been under fire by members of Congress who want to strip them of special contracting advantages. But key questions about subcontractors have been unanswered in the debate.

An analysis drawing on detailed reports of federal stimulus projects shows that ANCs turned to subcontractors at twice the rate of all other federal contractors and significantly more often than other small, minority-owned firms.

Revenues of Alaska Native corporations that are major federal contractors have grown much faster than profits and dividends they have paid to Native shareholders.