Mayetta, Kan. (AP) — The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, whose ancestors were uprooted from the Great Lakes region by the U.S. in the 1830s, are facing outrage from fellow Americans over plans to benefit from another forced removal plan: President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
A newly formed tribal business entity signed a nearly $30 million federal contract in October to come up with preliminary designs for immigrant detention centers across the U.S. amid backlash the tribe says it is trying to get out of.
Tribal leaders and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have not answered detailed questions about why the firm was chosen for such a large contract without competing for the work, which is normally required in federal contracts. A former Navy officer — who markets himself as the “go-to” consultant for tribes and affiliated companies looking to land federal contracts — founded the affiliate, KPB Services LLC, in April.
Criticism has been so intense that the 4,500-member tribe has fired the economic development leaders who brokered the deal.
“We are now known across the country as traitors and traitors to the other race,” Ray Rice, 74, said, adding that he and other tribal members are indiscriminate. “We’re brown and they’re brown.”
ICE’s dealings with tribes spark scrutiny
Tribal Chairman Joseph “JK” Rupnick promised “full transparency” about what he described as an “evolving situation.” In a video message to tribal members Friday, he said the tribe is talking with legal counsel about ways to end the contract.
He alludes to the time when federal agents forcibly removed hundreds of Prairie Band Potawatomi families from their homes and eventually placed them on a reservation north of Topeka.
“We know our Indian reservations were the government’s first attempt at detention centers,” Rupnik said in a video message. “We were held here because we were prisoners of war. So we have to ask ourselves why we would participate in something that reflects the loss and trauma that once happened to our people.”
The U.S. Supreme Court in September cleared the way for federal agents to use apparent ethnicity as a relevant factor in conducting and preventing widespread immigration raids. As some Native Americans have been rounded up and detained in recent raids, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s overtures to tribes and longstanding agreements are also generating increased scrutiny.
The LLC, owned by Alabama’s Porch Band of Creek Indians, has a million-dollar contract with ICE to provide financial and administrative services. Meanwhile, some shareholders of an Alaska Native corporation say their values don’t align with Akima, the corporation’s federal contracting division, to provide security at several ICE detention facilities.
“I’m shocked that there’s any tribal nation that’s willing to help the U.S. government on this,” said Brittany McCain, a 29-year-old Muskogee Nation citizen who attends the tribe’s college in Oklahoma.
Some tribal nations have advised their citizens to carry tribal identity cards.
Last month, actor Ellen Miles said she was stopped by ICE agents who accused her of having a fake ID from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.
Economic pressures increase as federal funding declines
The tribes’ economic arms, which can be run by non-natives, are under increasing pressure to generate revenue due to federal funding, high inflation and competition from online gambling, said Gabe Galanda, a Seattle-based tribal rights attorney.
But the economic opportunities presented to tribes don’t always align with their values, said Galanda, a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Northern California.
Prairie Band Potawatomi has a range of businesses that also provide healthcare management staffing, general contracting and interior design.
A tribal offshoot hired by ICE – KPB Services LLC – was established in Holton, Kansas, and is not listed on the tribe’s website. It was previously qualified along with dozens of other companies to provide logistical support to the US Navy although, to date, it has not performed any work for the federal government.
An ICE contract was initially awarded for $19 million in October for unspecified “due diligence and concept designs” for processing centers and detention centers across the U.S., according to a one-sentence job description on the federal government’s Real Time Contracting database. It was revised a month later to raise the payout limit to $29.9 million. Sole source contracts above $30 million require additional justification under federal contracting regulations.
The agreement raises many questions and goes against the Trump administration’s goal of cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse, said attorney Joshua Snell, an expert in federal contract law.
“Public confidence in the federal procurement system depends on transparency and competition,” Snell said. “Although there is a role within this system for multimillion-dollar single-source contracts, these contracts are an exception to statutory competition requirements, and taxpayers deserve to know how the government is spending their money.”
Backlash swift as news of ICE deal spreads
It is not clear what the tribal council knew about the agreement. A spokeswoman for the tribal council did not respond to repeated requests from the AP for details on who was fired.
According to the website of one-time consulting firm, Burton Woodward Partners LLC, KPB was founded by Ernest C., a retired U.S. Navy officer with degrees in engineering and business, and a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. Woodward Jr. is known to have registered.
The website describes Woodward as a serial entrepreneur and tribal consultant who has helped with mergers and acquisitions, access to capital and landing federal contracts. The consulting firm was registered in an office park in Sarasota, Florida in 2017 but was delisted two years later after failing to file an annual report.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation said in a 2017 news release that Woodward’s firm advised it to acquire another government contractor, Mill Creek LLC, which specializes in outfitting federal buildings and the military with office furniture and medical equipment.
Woodward is also listed as chief operating officer of the Florida branch of Prairie Band Construction Inc., which was registered in September.
Attempts to locate Woodward were unsuccessful. A phone number listed at Burton Woodward Partners was disconnected, and he did not respond to an email sent to another consulting firm affiliated with Virginia-based Chinkapin Partners LLC.
Carole Cadue-Blackwood, who is of Prairie Band Potawatomi descent and an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, hopes the deal dies. She has been part of the fight against the ICE detention center that opened in Leavenworth, Kansas, and works for the Social Services Agency for Native Americans.
“I’m in complete disbelief that this happened,” she said.
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Hollingsworth Mission, Kansas, and Goodman reported from Miami. Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
