Bering Straits bets big on federal contracting, just as the business gets harder

Bering Straits Native Corporation has bought the Alakaʻina Family of Companies — nine businesses that live off federal contracts — pushing its workforce past 4,000 and deepening a bet the Nome-based corporation had already placed heavily: on the U.S. government.

BSNC is owned by more than 8,200 Alaska Native shareholders across the Bering Strait region, and, it runs a large federal-contracting operation whose profits flow home as dividends, jobs, and services.

Native corporations hold a powerful edge there: through the federal 8(a) program, they can win sole-source government contracts of essentially unlimited size, without competition — a preference meant to spur development in Native communities.

Alakaʻina brings more of it, as the for-profit arm of a Native Hawaiian organization with the same advantages, joining two Indigenous-owned contractors under one roof.

That advantage is under real strain in 2026: federal awards to Native-owned 8(a) firms have fallen sharply this year — as the Trump administration curbs preferential contracting programs — down roughly 46 percent for Alaska Native corporations. BSNC is scaling up just as the ground beneath the business shifts.

Federal contracting is the second-largest economic engine in Indian Country after gaming, funding health care, schools, and infrastructure in regions where some communities still lack running water.

BSNC did not disclose what it paid for Alakaʻina, the debt terms, or the integration timeline.