Court records show Shee Atika and TigerSwan both aided interrogations during Iraq war by Frank Hopper

In a scathing indictment of a government program that awards defense contracts to Alaska Native tribes, Last Real Indians has uncovered court records that reveal a link between an Alaska Native corporation and a company of private mercenaries who fought Water Protectors at Standing Rock.

Documents filed in a 2016 federal lawsuit show TigerSwan, the private security firm who surveilled, harassed and vilified Water Protectors at Standing Rock in 2016 and 2017, worked with the Alaska Native corporation Shee Atika to help interrogate Iraqi citizens during the Iraq War.

Both companies were contracted, along with many others, to provide translation and interpretation services to U.S. military forces in Iraq. They worked as subcontractors for a company called Global Linguist Solutions, LLC.

The federal lawsuit against DynCorp International, the parent company of Global Linguist Solutions, alleges GLS used the subcontractors, such as Shee Atika and TigerSwan, to falsely bill the government for millions of dollars worth of services the subcontractors did not actually perform.

TigerSwan and Shee Atika

TigerSwan is a private security firm founded by Iraq War veterans that was hired by Energy Transfer Partners in 2016 to provide security during the Standing Rock standoff. According to a series of articles published by The Intercept, TigerSwan surveilled Water Protectors at Standing Rock and provided exaggerated, often racist daily intelligence reports to local law enforcement agencies.

As a result, law enforcement response to Water Protector activities was much harsher than it otherwise would have been, sometimes involving pepper spray, rubber bullets and water cannons. 

Shee Atika, Incorporated is an Alaska Native urban corporation from Sitka, Alaska. They were formed as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and currently have about 3,400 mostly Tlingit shareholders. Their subsidiary, Shee Atika Languages, LLC., was one of five companies who subcontracted with Global Linguist Solutions to provide linguistic services for the U.S. military in Iraq beginning in 2007.

What’s the connection? The ANC shell game

Upon first hearing about Shee Atika’s involvement in the Iraq War, one might wonder if people in Iraq speak Tlingit. But Shee Atika Languages employed no Tlingits. It was a totally separate company based in Maine that Shee Atika created and used to obtain a lucrative government contract.

In 2006, Global Linguist Solutions, a subsidiary of a huge government contracting conglomerate, won a $4.645 billion government contract to provide thousands of translators and interpreters for U.S. forces in Iraq. One of the contract requirements was GLS use some subcontractors “owned by veterans, women, and those considered ‘disadvantaged’ businesses,” according to court documents. Shee Atika ticked one of those boxes perfectly.

One year before, DynCorp, the parent company of GLS, approached Shee Atika and pitched them an idea to leverage their company’s status as a “disadvantaged” tribal-owned business to help obtain the multi-billion dollar translator and interpreter contract.

DynCorp would handle virtually everything such as recruiting, training and managing the interpreters and translators. Shee Atiká would simply be a shell company and wouldn’t have to do anything except process the payroll.

For creating paychecks for the 9,000 or so linguists, Shee Atika Languages would participate in a contract that in 2010 alone generated over $100 million in revenue for the Alaska Native corporation.

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas

DynCorp, who orchestrated the deal, has a long and sordid history as a defense contractor. In 1999, a whistleblower working for the company reported how DynCorp employees facilitated sex trafficking involving children in Bosnia.

In 2009, Afghan employees of DynCorp were accused of purchasing sex with children by providing “dancing boys” to parties of Afghan police.

In 2016, many of the U.S. interpreters and translators hired by DynCorp alleged in a lawsuit the company confiscated their passports when they arrived in Kuwait and forced them to live as prisoners in an overcrowded and unhealthy tent compound while waiting for assignments.

The documents for this lawsuit are where Last Real Indians discovered the link between Shee Atika and TigerSwan. Both companies were used as subcontractors by DynCorp to get the contract due to their unique statuses, Shee Atika as a minority-owned business and TigerSwan as veteran-owned.

Additional lawsuits and counter lawsuits have also been filed by Shee Atika and Global Linguist Solutions against each other. As of this writing, the litigation continues.

Shee Atika Languages abandoned their part of the defense contract in 2011 after a federal audit showed they had submitted over $5 million in questionable work claims. The General Accounting Office deducted that amount from subsequent payments to SAL and stopped authorizing future payments to them.

Additionally, they are named as co-defendants in the federal lawsuit against DynCorp and its subcontractors for their role in submitting false claims to the government.

The selling of poverty

Shee Atika was formed to bring economic development to the Native people of Sitka, Alaska. The corporation turned Alaska Native people into shareholders of a company run by educated, Native executives. But during the 1980s the company burned through most of the money it got from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and mowed down and sold most of the timber from the land it received.

After years of struggling financially, Shee Atika was brought back from the brink by a little-known government program. The Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program gives bidding preferences for government contracts to “disadvantaged” businesses like Alaska Native corporations. It became a much-needed boon to Shee Atika and for a brief time saved them from financial ruin.

But big government contracting conglomerates like DynCorp saw a loophole in the program they could exploit. Alaska Native corporations are allowed to subcontract their work out to non-Native companies. As a result, big companies often use them as shells to get government contracts and then do all the work themselves, giving the ANCs a percentage. By simply signing a contract and lending their Native company name, ANCs can make millions on government contracts.

Shee Atika fell into this trap and when the deal turned bad lost millions. They recently announced they are selling thousands of acres of their land back to the federal government as a way to recover. This is land the Tlingit people of the area fought for decades to receive.

For an economic program intended to raise up poor Alaska Native people, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act has, in this case, resulted in the loss of ancestral land and lured the Native company into war profiteering with some of the worst defense contractors in the country.

The sordid, convoluted story of Shee Atika getting in bed with racist mercenaries and shameless war profiteers serves as an example of what the government has done to tribes in Alaska.

A recent search of the Federal Procurement Data System lists over 86,000 current defense contracts awarded to Alaska Native corporations. These contracts include things like providing maintenance and support for ICE detention facilities and manufacturing ammo and explosives for the military and law enforcement.

In a polite email response, Shee Atika CEO Karl Potts declined Last Real Indians request for comment “due to pending litigation.”

Frank Hopper is a Tlingit freelance writer, born in Juneau, Alaska, and raised in Seattle. He now lives in Tacoma.