""We don't want your 'direct payments.' We don't want your welfare. We want self-sufficiency," said Lance Morgan, CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc., a 16-year-old, 1,000-employee company that's lifted his community, the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, from 65% unemployment in 1994 to full employment today and what Morgan calls "a shot at a middle-class life."

The success emanates from a gleaming corporate headquarters, shown here, in the rolling hills of eastern Nebraska. There Morgan, a Harvard-trained lawyer and tribal member, runs a range of enterprises, some of which include federal-government sole-source contracts for telecommunications projects, support services in Iraq and Afghanistan, construction, and more. The company obtains the negotiated agreements via the tribal portion of the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program for disadvantaged and minority businesses. Through the program, all Native firms together receive about .7% of this type of federal business, most of which originates from the Defense Department. Adding in non-8(a) contracts brings the Native share to 1.3%.

Thanks to Ho-Chunk, Inc., tribal members participate in the American dream in ways not imagined a generation ago, with blue- and white-collar jobs, home ownership, and retirement accounts. Along the way, Morgan has been lauded by the Small Business Administration, the State Department, and business magazines. However, his achievement may soon fade, and fewer tribal members may be receiving paychecks.

Instead, they may be expecting "direct payments" from the federal government -- presumably a new form of welfare -- that Senator Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.) suggested to the Washington Post as an alternative to tribally owned businesses. McCaskill is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, with authority over Defense Department spending. If she has her way, Morgan said, hundreds of Ho-Chunk, Inc. employees will be laid off, kids' college scholarships will be put on hold, and tribal housing-assistance programs will be cut."

Get the Story:
Stephanie Woodard: The New Indian Fighters: Lt. Col. McCaskill and Major WaPo (The Huffington Post 10/22)

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