Company
Old Harbor Native Corporation (OHNC) is one of 252 Native village corporations established by Congress in 1971 under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).
ANCSA, which was a purposeful alternative to the Lower 48 reservation system, was the first settlement of its kind between Native Americans and the federal government. Alaska Natives were provided a corporate structure for holding land and capital, with the freedom to control their own economic and social future.
OHNC was incorporated in 1973 and originally enrolled 329 shareholders under the Act. Today, there are approximately 335 shareholders residing primarily in Anchorage, Kodiak and Old Harbor, but some as far away as Iceland and Switzerland.
The Corporation’s Board of Directors is tasked with the dual responsibility to grow and manage the assets of the Corporation for the benefit of the shareholders, and preserve and protect the culture and traditions of the community. A challenging task, indeed.
The Corporation maintains a balanced portfolio of investments in the securities market and owns commercial property in Anchorage and Kodiak. It also owns the Grande Denali Lodge and Denali Bluffs Hotel at Denali Park, which are managed by NANA Management Services. This acquisition represents not only an exciting diversification in the Corporation’s investment portfolio into the tourism industry, but it also offers employment and educational opportunities to shareholders and descendants. More information on the hotels is available on the website: www.denalialaska.com
In 2002, the Corporation formed Three Saints Bay, LLC (TSB), as a wholly owned subsidiary, to take advantage of the many opportunities in the government contracting marketplace. Through its subsidiary companies TSB is able to acquire interest in service businesses or form new companies to pursue the opportunities afforded to Native owned companies; and TSB is actively expanding in the national and international business and government contracting arena. The Company has acquired or formed: Amee Bay LLC, Barling Bay, LLC, Rolling Bay, LLC, SAGE Technologies, LLC, and Shearwater Systems, LLC. More information on each of the companies is available on their respective websites: www.ameebay.com; www.barlingbay.com; www.sagealaska.com; www.rolling-bay.com
Also, in 2002, OHNC, after identifying the need for a fiber optic cable telecommunication system connecting Kodiak Island and the Western Kenai Peninsula with Anchorage, formed the Kodiak-Kenai Cable Company (KKCC) to engineer, construct and operate such a system. Over several years, the Corporation, joined by Ouzinkie Native Corporation and assisted by Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation (AADC), proceeded with the design, financing and permitting of the Kodiak Kenai Fiber Link Project. Construction of the $38 million project was completed in 2006 and KKCC began providing service to telecommunication common carriers in 2007. The system with landing sites in Anchorage, Kenai, Homer, Kodiak, Narrow Cape and Seward, serves approximately ten percent of the State’s population and provides high-speed broadband connectivity via a secure, state-of-the art submarine fiber optic cable.
The KKCC system offers secure telecommunication services to the nation’s largest Coast Guard base, which is on Kodiak Island. The system also serves the AADC Kodiak Rocket Launch Facility, located at Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island, and the access to secure, high speed fiber optic connectivity is considered critical to the development of the Ground-based Midcourse Missile Defense System. The improved telecommunication delivery enhances economic and educational opportunities and health services for all the communities served by this system. The importance of a redundant system is underscored by the reliability requirements for a project serving such varied and important interests. As designed the system is more than sufficient to meet the total current requirements of Kodiak Island and the Kenai Peninsula and it may be upgraded as necessary to meet future traffic demand.
More detailed information on the Kodiak-Kenai Fiber Link Project is available on the website: www.kkfl.info. Fishermen and mariners may download a detailed lat-long route position list on the website by clicking the route link from the main menu.
Looking forward, the Board of Directors and Management will continue to manage the Corporation with the challenge of meeting the dual responsibilities of preserving and protecting the Alutiiq culture, traditions and values of this 7,500 year-old community, while at the same time providing for the current and future economic wellbeing of the community and the Corporation. A task which has been successfully met by the Directors, the shareholders, and assisted by the wisdom of the elders for over thirty-five years, will continue to be met for generations to come.