Thread by @adamelmahrek

These contractors won more than $800 million in federal contracts by making dubious claims to being Native Americans.

Here's how they did it.

THREAD

latimes.com/california/sto…

The Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama won state recognition in 1985.

They claim that their ancestors fled mobs of white killers in the 1830s, hid out in a cave, and then reemerged and blended in with the local whites.

But federal researchers concluded that there was no evidence the story was anything more than a myth, rooted in local folklore about Indians and outlaws.

In reality, the Ma-Chis ancestors were whites, sang white southern hymns and told white folklore, the researchers found.

And yet, because Alabama granted the group recognition as a tribe of Indians, the SBA certified Ma-Chis companies as tribally owned.

This meant they could win contracts reserved for minorities. So far, Ma-Chis companies have received more than $240 million in minority contracts

Hundreds of millions of dollars more went to other companies The Times found claimed to be Native American owned, but whose owners were white.

They got those contracts through membership in Cherokee tribes that federally recognized tribes say are fakes.

latimes.com/local/lanow/la…

The congressional committee that oversees the SBA is planning an audit of the agency to get to the bottom of what went wrong.

Rep. Judy Chu, chair of the subcommittee on investigations, called the Ma-Chis contracts the most "egregious" example yet.

latimes.com/california/sto…

One major problem that allowed the Ma-Chis to win these contracts: the minority contracting programs allow state recognized tribes and their members to qualify.

Native Americans have long said states don't vet these groups and shouldn't be involved.

The Ma-Chis are a clear case of what can go wrong with the rules.

The state recognized them in 1985 as a tribe. In 1987, a federal inquiry concluded there was no evidence of Native American heritage. Nonetheless, based on the rules the SBA qualified them for the contracts.

Claims to Native American heritage grew exponentially across the country during the 1960s and 1970s.

In a way, these claims have allowed whites to distort affirmative action and its intent, by calling any white person who said they have a distant Cherokee ancestor a minority.

But the Cherokees have a long and well documented history. And these unrecognized Native American groups will allow membership based on false family trees.

These companies got $180 million claiming an ancestor they weren't even related to

@PringleLATimes and I spent the past year investigating this problem, finally honing on the worst cases we could find, in Alabama.

Please, if you value this work, get a digital subscription to the LA Times. We won't survive without reader who pay.

latimes.com/subscriptions/

@PringleLATimes Also, my endless gratitude to the patient editors who guided and helped craft this project. Thank you.

@PringleLATimes How could I have forgotten this?

One of the companies that made a totally unsubstantiated claim to being Cherokee Indian to get millions in contracts is the white brother-in-law of our House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

latimes.com/local/californ…

@PringleLATimes Another consequence that needs focus - other minority groups are being cheated in all this.

In Alabama, "Native Americans" got more than $2 billion even though they're less than 1% of the population.

Black businesses only got $827 million, even though they're 26% of the state