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- By Chez Oxendine
- Food | Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a raft of new grants and awards for tribal organizations and governments on Dec. 9 during the last Tribal Nations Summit hosted by the Biden administration.
The USDA announced $20 million in U.S. Forest Service awards to tribes to facilitate access to emerging climate markets that support forest management activities. These include markets like the burgeoning carbon credits system in California, which rewards careful planting and forest management to retain more carbon in plants and soil, thereby lowering emissions.
The department distributed $16.4 million across 10 tribal projects, while allocating the remaining $3.6 million to the First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) for its efforts in the sector. FNDI Stewarding Native Lands Program Director Mary Adelzadeh said the Institute plans to issue subgrants to projects that might bolster carbon sequestration, improve biodiversity, or lay the groundwork for new climate markets.
“We see the opportunity to help build capacity among tribes and Native communities, so they can access sustainable revenue generation,” Adelzadeh said. “That’s what this funding will support - those innovations and opportunities that are aligned with tribal values and their communities’ priorities.”
The National Intertribal Food Business Center (NIFBC) announced the availability of $25 million in Business Builder grants to support coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building for small and mid-sized food and farm businesses. The group partnered with the Intertribal Agriculture Council on the grant, according to a USDA press release.
The grants aim to fund projects focused on expanding market access, improving business viability, and supporting value chains between tribal businesses. NIFBC will conduct up to four rounds of non-competitive subawards to distribute funds based on successful completion of technical assistance tracks that address challenges unique to the 574 federally recognized tribes.
“The Intertribal Agriculture Council is proud to partner with USDA in bringing these critical resources to Tribal Nations and individual Native producers,” Kari Jo Lawrence, CEO of the Intertribal Agriculture Council, said in a statement. “This opportunity not only supports economic growth but also strengthens Tribal sovereignty. It reinforces our commitment to preserving Tribal food systems and ensuring their vitality for generations to come."
The Agriculture Department's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) also awarded grants to help tribal land-grant colleges become centers of scientific inquiry and learning for remote and rural tribal communities through the Tribal College Research Grant Program. The department distributed $1.3 million in awards to tribal institutions including Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona, where the money will support woodland and forest restoration research.
The agency also announced watershed program enhancements aimed at improving access to restoration and infrastructure funding for tribes, tribal organizations, and Alaska Native villages. The initiatives in question, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program and the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, no longer require eminent domain authority for tribal participation. Per a USDA press release, not all tribes in the area possess that authority, and removing the requirement should lower a barrier for more than 30 tribes and organizations to join the program.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the announcements capped off a year of supporting tribal sovereignty through work at the department. “These USDA actions – from co-stewardship agreements with national forests to marketing Tribally produced food and agriculture businesses – help to create a stronger food system in Indian Country and honor our trust responsibility to Tribal Nations,” Vilsack said.
FNDI’s Adelzadeh said she felt the grants were a step in the right direction toward USDA’s goals with tribal communities.
“You know, for so long, you know, tribes were removed off of the land and contained onto reservation systems, and their knowledge was also contained on those reservation systems with no investment,” Adelzadeh said. “This is a real opportunity to restore native stewardship across their homelands on larger landscapes to really have impact.”
