Starting back in 1975 our Tribe was among the first Indians to be qualified for the Minority Work on Federal Contracts set-a-side. Our tribe as Tribal Projects set up construction companies to take part in the then 5% set-a-side contracts. T.C.I, Arrow Guard Rail, AJ Contracting & AJ Brokerage & Supply. We worked very hard to form an income for our tribe. In 1975-1980's we had construction jobs fo
r members of our tribe and brought in Native Americans from the Chicago Indian Center to work on the contracts. The Labor Unions would not let "Indians" join but wanted our Tribal Compaines to use all Union labor. The Unions were constantly taking our Tribe to court both State of Illionis and Federal Courts trying to shut down our Construction Companies. In all court cases it was determined that our tribe was a federally recognized tribe. We had satisfactory work and most all of the set-a-side contracts. Unknowingly, the State of Illionis was plotting against our Tribe. We lost our federal recognition for unknown reasons. We went back to try and obtain it and were denied. We are now only a State Recognized Organization.
