Inupiat honored by Native Hawaiian Economic Alliance

The Native Hawaiian Economic Alliance selected Max Ahgeak, President of the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation, to receive its “Native Hawaiian Business Champion Award” at the 5th Annual Native Hawaiian Convention in Honolulu earlier this month.

“What makes our selection of Ahgeak so special is the fact that he is neither a Hawai‘i resident nor Native Hawaiian, but instead an Eskimo leader from Alaska,” NHEA chairman Austin Nakoa said in a release. “He believed equally in our vision to support locally owned and Native Hawaiian owned small businesses and to help us keep more of the contract dollars at the military agencies in Hawai‘i.”

Ahgeak, 53, is the first recipient of the Native Hawaiian Business Champion Award created by NHEA to recognize individuals that work to advance Native Hawaiian Businesses.

Born and raised in a remote Alaskan village, Ahgeak has operated his own small business for six years. For the last decade, he had led the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation, owned by the community of Inupiat people of Alaska.

In 2003, Ahgeak agreed to mentor and support the efforts of NHEA, a consortium of more than 70 small businesses owned by Native Hawaiians. He entered into a memorandum of agreement to re-enforce the cultural ties already present between Alaska’s Native peoples and Native Hawaiians and to strengthen the business alliance created by NHEA.

“The result of Max and his people has had a profound impact on our efforts and our ability to achieve our highest goals of local contracting in a very short amount of time,” Nakoa said. “Max has been with us side by side and believed in the mission of NHEA, worked with us to make it a reality.”

Some say Ahgeak’s connection to the Native Hawaiian Economic Alliance spans more than a century, when Native Hawaiians traveled aboard whaling vessels and interacted with his people in the 1800’s.

“We have a long history of helping and working with the people of Hawai‘i,” Ahgeak, a whaling captain, said. “In fact, one of our rivers is named the Hula Hula river.

“Supporting Hawaiians is not something to do because it’s nice; supporting Hawaiians is our obligation as native peoples, to help each other and to help our cultures and languages survive. We are subsistence people, living off the land of our ancestors. We learned that business is a tool to be self-sufficient, to put resources into our communities, our way of life. We want to share our lessons with NHEA and support them, its good for all native people when anyone of us makes a mark.”

In his acceptance speak, Ahgeak drew parallels between the native peoples of the last two states to join the union.

“Our people face the same challenges, and we have the same hopes for our communities,” he said. “Hawai‘i is your homeland, and doing business here is just one area to build on. You have a good start, and we will help you in any way we can, just as others helped us.”