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Sunday, October 20, 2013
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES CONVENTION
Economic power Study examined financial importance of Native groups This story first appeared in the News-Miner on June 12, 2012
By Matt Buxton MBUXTON@NEWSMINER.COM
Interior-based Alaska Native organizations make up a large chunk of the local economy, according to a 2012 study of 2010 numbers, and the organizations are hoping those numbers will help establish the economic importance of the Native community. According to the study released jointly by several Interior Native organizations, the more than 70 Interior-based Native organizations provided an economic impact exceeding $300 million in 2010
2010 by the numbers » • 2,725 people were employed by Native organizations for $100.7 million in wages. 1,238 in Fairbanks and 1,487 in Interior villages. • Native organizations spent $178 million in the region. Indirect spending added $129 million. • Statewide, Interior Native organizations employed 5,161 people and spent $497 million. • The Fairbanks North Star Borough saw the most spending at $62.2 million. through the wages of more than 2,725 jobs and direct spending at other businesses. Aaron Schutt, the CEO and President of Doyon, Limited, a for-profit Native corporation that employs thousands of people, said it’s a concrete recognition of the significant role Native organizations — both for-profit and nonprofit — play
in the Interior. “If you combine our spending, it’s quite significant here in Fairbanks,” he said at a press conference at Doyon’s headquarters in downtown Fairbanks. “We are rooted here and we have a commitment to Alaska.” Doyon, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Denakkanagga, Fairbanks Native Asso-
ciation and Interior Regional Housing Authority paid for the study, which was conducted by Fairbanks-based Information Insights. The report shows that, when combined, the region’s Native organizations are the fifth-largest employer in the Interior, after the U.S. military, the federal government, the University of Alaska and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. With about 2,750 employees, wages are estimated to make up about 7 percent of all civilian wages in the Interior, according to the report. While many of those employed by the organizations are Native, which is especially the case in smaller, rural organizations, many jobs go to nonNative employees, Schutt said. He said ECONOMY » 43
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