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Tribe formed company to bid on contracts with government and the private sector

If you want a glimpse of the future for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, take a peek into the office of economic development director Travis Parashonts some day.

By Bob Mims
The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Dec/12172003/business/120581.asp

You might catch Parashonts huddled over a glowing laptop computer with Carey Wold, a state business development adviser, making a teleconference pitch to a potential client for the tribe’s new "smart site," Suh’dutsing Technologies LLC.

Any day now, the startup taking shape in 1,400 square feet of space leased from the Paiutes’ Cedar Band — Suh’dutsing, loosely translated, means "cedar tree" — expects its first contract. Scores of government agencies and private firms have expressed interest in the new endeavor, intrigued with the tribe’s idea of a rural company offering big-city, high-tech services.

"Right now, we’ve focused almost entirely on marketing," Parashonts says. "We’re new at this, so we are looking for the right kind of partnership with a company or agency willing to help mentor Suh’dutsing through its first contract."

Ideally, the tribal company’s first step into the business world will involve about 15 of its 60 employees, who have been receiving training in various computer-related skills. Those jobs — involving such 21st century skills as data processing and storage, Web site hosting, networking installation and development, computer programming, and software sales and development — would pay at least $9-$10 per hour, plus health and retirement benefits.

What the Paiutes don’t want Suh’dutsing to bring is a smattering of minimum wage jobs that do little to help the 850 members of one of the nation’s poorest tribes rise out of poverty. Unemployment for Utah’s Paiutes runs around 20 percent, the highest rate in the state, but underemployment — where tribal members earn less than subsistence wages — is a whopping 70 percent, Parashonts said.

The Paiutes have been ill-treated by history, having had their tribal status terminated by Washington in 1954. By the time tribal status was regained in 1980, the Paiutes — left without federal aid common to their Native American brethren — had lost 15,000 acres of former reservation lands, mostly because of an inability to pay property taxes.

Suffering, however, has made them a patient people, Para- shonts says, one willing to grow Suh’dutsing into a business that will eventually have a marked, long-term impact for the better on the tribal economy.

From those initial 15 or so good-paying jobs, the tribe hopes Suh’dutsing will gain business management experience needed to confidently bid on larger contracts until all of its workers — currently tribal employees as the company ramps up — get their checks from the new commercial ventures the company generates.

That is an approach that has won the blessing of Forrest Cuch, executive director of Utah Indian Affairs.

"They are starting on the right track by targeting profits over jobs. Too many Indian tribes make the mistake of designing businesses for jobs rather than profit first," he says.

Designation as one of Utah’s "smart sites" — state-sponsored, tech startups in rural areas — gave Suh’dutsing its first marketing boost. In addition to state advertising support, being a smart site also landed the tribal business five computers to get started.

During a November recruiting trip to Washington, D.C., Parashonts and Wold took marketing a big step forward, meeting with a dozen federal agencies — the Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Treasury and Defense departments among them.

Under HUD Zone and 8(a) certification granted by the U.S. Small Business Administration earlier this year, Suh’dutsing was able to claim favored status for federal contracting opportunities. Perhaps in response to the range of tech services being offered, governmental response has been promising, though the tribe is not at liberty to discuss many specifics.

High-level meetings also have been held with several private companies. One, Digital Net, is a $320-million-a-year tech company that has agreed to look for future opportunities to work with Suh’dutsing, Wold says.

Such marketing efforts are now the full-time domain of April Riley, new senior accounts manager. She has previous experience as a businesswoman seeking government contracts, and has already played key roles in developing private- and public-sector partnerships to train Suh’dutsing employees in the skills they will need.

"We are marketing these skills to nearly every government agency . . . [and] to established information technology companies," Riley says. "We do not have an active contract, but we are bidding on several that will be awarded after the first of the year."

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© Copyright 2003, The Salt Lake Tribune.
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