WHO IS TKCIS?
TKCIS is Alaska Native Americans searching for their part in the American
dream 513 years after Columbus landed in the Western Hemisphere, 264 years
after the Russians colonized Alaska, 138 years after the United States
purchased Alaska, and 46 years after Alaska became the 49th state of the
Union.  While history has unfolded, Alaskan Natives have hacked out a
subsistence living in a tundra few would even visit in its few weeks of summer.  
For the last 264 years they have eked out a meager living, while the culture and
way of life which sustained them since before Julius Caesar breathed his first
and last, has been eroded and destroyed.

They survive on the bleakest and most remote edge of this great North
American continent over 4,000 miles from the capital of the world’s wealthiest
country and its only superpower, living impoverished lives with limited access to
job opportunities.  Hunger stalks at their doorsteps.  A box of cereal costs over
$12.00 in remote villages.  They are poor.  In 2003, over 46% of adults are not
in the work force as there is not enough industry.  They are tired.  Where is their
fair share of this so-called American dream emblazoned on a French statue a
continent away?

The Alaska Native Corporation, like TKCIS, is their dream, their vision to try to
realize that American dream for themselves.  Who would call himself an
American, and deny these First Americans the access to opportunities that most
Americans enjoy?

Over 11,000 Native Americans own TKCIS lock, stock and barrel.  If TKCIS can
generate a net annual profit of $3 Million, it provides a benefit worth only about
$230 for each member.  These benefits are stretched to cover job-generating
projects, academic scholarships and dividends for Native American
shareholders.  The dividends, divided evenly among every individual tribe
member as is their custom, will help pay for heat where the coldest recorded
temperature is minus-52 degrees Fahrenheit or for boats for hunting and fishing
as they have since before Socrates drank the hemlock.  Milk will cost them two
to three times more than what we pay in the lower 48 states.  

I visited Alaska in June 2004 to meet my employers.  It was my second visit to
Alaska.  My search for the American dream began in Alaska, the first place in
this great country I set foot in December 1973.  A nineteen year old immigrant
from a third world country, I had a few tattered summer clothes in my bag and
twelve wrinkled dollars in my pocket, and no college degree.  During the last
three decades, this country gave me the opportunity to get a college degree, a
law degree, and work for a comfortable wage.

Now, I can give something back to this country by lending a helping hand to its
First Americans.  As I learn about their struggles, hopes and dreams, I see trying
to break free the bold spirit which dire poverty has long tried to extinguish.

When I look into the eyes of my Native American friends, I know that, even if I
came to America over 10,000 years after their ancestors, we share the same
aspirations for a better life for our children…and our children’s children.

When we come to work everyday, our goal is to provide the highest quality of
service to our customers and ensure a mutually-productive relationship with our
business partners.  By meeting these business objectives, TKCIS will
consistently increase the net company value for the benefit of our Native
American shareholders.

Dennis G. Defensor
President, TKCIS
Dennis G. Defensor
President, TKCIS