Up to $240,000 in federal funds is being awarded to a pilot program designed to enhance the economic fortunes of Native American-owned businesses across the country.
In announcing the funding, Isabel Casillas Guzman, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, said the program is part of a Biden Administration goal of “increasing economic opportunities for tribal communities and creating pathways for the more than 340,000 Native American and Indigenous small business owners in the U.S.”
The funding is specifically being awarded to the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, which was founded in 1969 and is tasked with providing supply management and technical assistance to Native and Indigenous-owned businesses nationally.
The awarding of the grant, remarked Chris James, the president of the NCAIED, “validates our ongoing efforts to empower Native American entrepreneurs and promote economic self-sufficiency.”
Those efforts additionally include helping businesses to set up websites, developing an international marketing media presence, and hosting export training workshops.
Earlier this week, NCAIED officials met with members of the incoming Trump Administration with the goal of discussing Native American and Indigenous communities’ economic development issues.
To that end, the association presented a document called a Policy Brief for the Trump Administration Transition Team calling on the President-Elect to push for the passage of the Native American Business Incubators Program Act, which set up a program of awarding grants to operate business incubators in Indian Country.
NCAIED also wants to see an upgrading of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act regulations, making it easier to increase bank investments in Indian Country businesses.
November 22, 2024
By Garry Boulard
