Here is a round up of business briefs from around Indian Country.
Economic development
- A team of students at the Rapid City, S.D.-based South Dakota School of Mines and Technology worked with tribal and federal officials to design and break ground on a new fire station in the town of Pine Ridge, S.D. on the Pine Ridge Reservation. When construction wraps up on the new facility, it will be the first dedicated fire station for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which aims to leverage the new resources to reduce response times for fire emergencies. The tribe funded the project with a technical assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development department, according to a statement. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology faculty and engineers from Rapid City-based Banner Associates oversaw the project. Students at the school are also involved in the design of new tribal administration buildings for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Entrepreneurship
- Fourteen Native American-owned small businesses in Montana are sharing in $86,500 in Tribal Tourism Digital Business Development Grant from the Montana Department of Commerce. The businesses will receive between $5,500 and $6,250 and must provide matching funds. The competitive grant program is targeted at assisting Native-owned businesses emerge from the pandemic and better position themselves to generate revenue via professional content development, website development and offering virtual experiences. The recipients were: Leaning Tree Café, Sunshine Woman Creations and DeBoo’s Ranch Adventures (Blackfeet Tribe); Krusty Krab Fireworks (Chippewa Cree Tribe); Flathead Raft Company, Hardup Land, Keepers of the Seasons, and Water People Tours & Kapapa (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes); Indian Battle Tours and Wellknown Buffalo Café (Crow Tribe); Bishop Guide Service (Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes); Redbyrd Designs (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes); and Sage & Oats Trading Post and Native Country Tourism (Northern Cheyenne Tribe).
Real estate
- The Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians received federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee to construct 17 single-family tribal homes in Oakhurst, Calif. The 17-unit development will include 13 three-bedroom homes, four four-bedroom homes and a tribal community playground, according to a statement. The tribe is working on the project with Travois Inc., a Kansas City, Mo.-based consulting and architecture firm. The partners plan to break ground in December of this year. “The Tribe competed and won the award for these tax credits after going through an appeal process,” Tribal Chairwoman Claudia Gonzales said in a statement. “The tax credits will be used to finance this exciting new tribal housing community project to provide support to tribal families.”
- Cherokee Nation has acquired the Dwight Mission in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma from the Dwight Presbyterian Mission Inc., according to a report in the Tahlequah Daily Press. The facility formerly served as a school and mission for Native American students. It had been used as a camp and conference center since the 1950s. “We appreciate all that the Presbyterian Church has done throughout the years as stewards of this property, and we look forward to the opportunity to continue to build on that legacy here in Sequoyah County,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in the report. The tribe and the mission’s board started negotiations for the facility in late 2020.
Federal 8(a) contracting
- Sunik LLC, a subsidiary of Alaska Native-owned Akima LLC, was awarded a five-year, $26 million contract to provide operations and maintenance and administrative support services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Western Regional Research Center (WRRC) in Albany, Calif. Sunik also provides operations and maintenance support services at the USDA Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa. “This contract award further validates the company’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality services that ensure the operations of our nation’s most critical scientific and government facilities,” Scott Rauer, president of Akima’s Facilities Solutions Group, said in a statement. Akima is an enterprise of NANA Regional Corporation Inc., which is owned by 14,300 Iñupiat shareholders with roots in a 38,000-square-mile section of northwest Alaska, much of which is located above the Arctic Circle. Akima employs more than 7,500 people across its various subsidiaries.
