Echo Hawk Announces $2.0 Million in Economic Development Technical Assistance Grants to 30 Tribes

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) has awarded approximately $2.0 million in economic development technical assistance grants to 30 federally recognized tribes. The funding was provided by the IEED’s Native American Business Development Institute (NABDI) grant program to foster economic activity and create jobs within tribal communities.

“Providing funding for tribes to conduct the research necessary for developing their economic and business plans is a vital and necessary part of Indian Affairs’ mission,” Echo Hawk said. “The funds provided by the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development’s Native American Business Development Institute technical assistance grant program are the seeds that, if carefully tended, will help Indian Country’s economy to bloom and grow. I am very pleased to announce these grants to tribes who are seeking to improve their local economic and employment conditions.”

The NABDI grants will allow recipients to hire consultants to perform feasibility studies of tribal economic development opportunities or long-term, strategic, reservation-wide economic development plans. Consultants may include universities and colleges, private consulting firms, non-academic/non-profit entities, or others. The feasibility studies may concern the viability of an economic development project or business, or the practicality of a technology a tribe may choose to pursue.

In response to a solicitation of proposals the IEED published in the Federal Register on July 13, 2011, the NADBI grant program received 79 tribal funding requests totaling approximately $7.8 million. Last month, the program awarded almost $2.0 million in grants for 46 projects from 30 tribes. The list of those grantees is attached.

The IEED established the Institute in 2007 and the NADBI grant program shortly thereafter. This is an annual program and the IEED uses a competitive evaluation process to select several proposed projects to receive an award. The program is funded under the non-recurring appropriation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget and is based on available funds.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs oversees the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, whose mission is to foster stronger American Indian and Alaska Native communities by helping federally recognized tribes with employment and workforce training programs; developing their renewable and non-renewable energy and mineral resources; and increasing access to capital for tribal and individual American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses. For more information about IEED programs and services, visit the Indian Affairs

website at http://www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/IEED/index.htm.