This Kansas Native Tribe Is Regretting Its $30M Deal with ICE

Ancestors Walked the Trail of Death

A Kansas tribe whose ancestors were marched at gunpoint from Indiana to Kansas in 1838 quietly signed a $30 million contract to help design immigrant detention centers.

When fellow Native Americans found out, they called the Prairie Band Potawatomi traitors.

Now the tribe is firing executives, hiring lawyers, and trying to escape a deal that forced them to confront a painful question: why would people who survived forced removal help the government remove others?

Helping Build a Detention Center in Secret

A newly established tribal business entity quietly signed a nearly $30 million federal contract in October to come up with an early design for immigrant detention centers across the U.S.

The company, KPB Services LLC, is connected to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation near Mayetta, Kansas.

The ICE contract initially was awarded in October for $19 million for unspecified “due diligence and concept designs” for processing centers and detention centers throughout the U.S.

It was modified a month later to increase the payout ceiling to $29.9 million. The tribe’s elected council says it did not know about the deal until reporters started asking questions.

Native Americans Denounce the Deal

The criticism has been so intense that the 4,500-member tribe said it fired the economic development leaders who brokered the deal.

One tribal member, 74-year-old Ray Rice, said he and others were blindsided by the news.

“I’m shocked that there is any tribal nation that’s willing to assist the U.S. government in that,” said Brittany McKane, a 29-year-old Muscogee Nation citizen who attends the tribe’s college in Oklahoma.

The contract put the Prairie Band at the center of a national debate about whether tribes should profit from immigration enforcement.

Tribe Fires Executives Within 24 Hours

Within 24 hours, the tribal council and the board of Prairie Band LLC terminated the two senior executives who were directly responsible for signing the contract.

The tribe released a statement acknowledging the anger and confusion the news caused among its members.

The tribe said the project does not align with its values.

Chairman Joseph Rupnick promised full transparency about what he called an evolving situation and said lawyers were already working on options to exit the agreement.

Reservations Were Americas First Detention Centers

“We know our Indian reservations were the government’s first attempts at detention centers,” said Joseph Rupnick, chairman of the Tribal Council.

“We were placed here because we were treated as prisoners of war. So we must ask ourselves why we would ever participate in something that mirrors the harm and trauma once done to our people.”

Rupnick delivered the message in a video address to tribal members on Friday, December 13, drawing a direct line between immigrant detention and Native American history.

The 1838 Trail of Death to Kansas

The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal by militia in 1838 of about 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas.

The march began at Twin Lakes, Indiana and ended on November 4, 1838, along the western bank of the Osage River, near present-day Osawatomie, Kansas.

During the journey of approximately 660 miles over 61 days, more than 40 people died, most of them children.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi are direct descendants of those survivors.

ICE Already Stopping Native Americans

Northern Exposure actress Elaine Miles said she was stopped and detained by immigration agents who allegedly dismissed her tribal identification as “fake.”

One officer said the identification “looked fake,” while another said, “anyone can make that.” She said both her son and her uncle were previously detained by ICE agents who initially refused to accept their tribal IDs before releasing them.

These incidents have raised fears across Native communities that indigenous people are being racially profiled during immigration enforcement.

Other Tribes Also Hold ICE Contracts

The Prairie Band Potawatomi are not alone in doing business with ICE.

An LLC owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama also has a multimillion dollar contract with ICE to provide financial and administrative services.

Meanwhile, some shareholders of an Alaska Native corporation say their values don’t align with the corporation’s federal contracting division, Akima, to provide security at several ICE detention facilities.

These deals are now drawing extra scrutiny as immigration enforcement intensifies.

A Contract Adviser Built the Deal

KPB was registered by Ernest C. Woodward Jr., a retired U.S. naval officer with degrees in engineering and business who is a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

His consulting firm marketed him as a tribal adviser on landing federal contracts.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in a 2017 news release said Woodward’s firm advised it on its acquisition of another government contractor, Mill Creek LLC, which specializes in outfitting federal buildings and the military.

Questions remain about why this contract was awarded without competitive bidding.

Walking Away Is Not Simple

As with any contract, an entity cannot just walk away, especially from an ICE or Homeland Security contract, without serious consequences.

The tribe has met with legal counsel to explore options for canceling the agreement, but the process is complicated. Rupnick said the tribe is “looking at all options concerning exiting this contract.”

Federal contracts carry legal obligations that can result in penalties, lawsuits, or damage to future contracting opportunities if broken improperly.

Tribes Face Pressure to Make Money

The economic arms of tribes, which can be run by non-Natives, are under increasing pressure to generate revenue because of decreased federal funding, high inflation and competition from online gambling.

But the economic opportunities presented to tribes don’t always align with their values, said Galanda, a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California.

For many tribes, the choice between financial stability and cultural principles is becoming harder to avoid.

Chairman Questions Past to Present

Rupnick ended his video message with a challenge to his people: why would a tribe that was forcibly removed from its homeland ever help remove others from theirs?

The Tribe owns Prairie Band LLC, and Rupnick said it was created to secure employment and economic opportunities, “but it is also why we cannot compromise our values and seek to profit off the backs of our brothers and sisters in struggle.”

Whether the tribe can escape the contract remains uncertain. What it will cost them, financially or otherwise, is still unknown.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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