Bishop Paiute Tribe

Bishop Indian Tribal Council, doing business as Bishop Paiute Tribe, operates as a federally recognized Indian tribal government headquartered in Bishop, California, receiving federal grant funding as a prime recipient across a portfolio of 299 awards spanning environmental protection, child care, energy assistance, community services, broadband infrastructure, and tribal justice and public safety programs. The tribe competes exclusively under tribal set-asides and formula grant programs; it holds no federal contracts as a prime or subcontractor and functions entirely within the federal grant ecosystem.

The tribe's federal award footprint centers on four grantor agencies that together account for 39% of awards by count. The Environmental Protection Agency (29 awards) funds air quality monitoring, assessment, regulatory program development, and infrastructure upgrades including PM10 monitor replacement and weather station modernization under CFDA 66.038 and related air-quality programs. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (24 awards) and Administration for Community Living (41 combined awards across nutrition services, caregiver support, and child care) dispense formula grants under the Older Americans Act Title VI and the Child Care and Development Block Grant programs. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Community Services administers recurring Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and LIHEAP Infrastructure Supplement awards. Across these agencies, the tribe acts as prime recipient for all work; one sub-award appears in the source (a sub-grant from California Department of Social Services for child and adult care food program participation), representing less than 1% of the portfolio.

Representative recent awards illustrate the scope. A $6.307 million Project Grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (CFDA 41.019), awarded February 2025, funds deployment of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) underground infrastructure serving 134 unserved tribal households, 8 unserved tribal businesses, and 1 anchor institution on the Bishop Reservation, with eventual expansion to 181 households below the 150% poverty line, targeting up to 1,000 Mbps symmetrical speeds. A $499,967 Project Grant from the Bureau of Reclamation under the Indian Tribal Water Resources Development, Management, and Protection program (CFDA 15.519), awarded September 2025, covers replacement of approximately 4,401 linear feet of ten-inch irrigation line pipe with high-pressure plastic piping, irrigation valves, and standpipes through October 2028. Two EPA Region 9 Formula Grants (CFDA 66.038) — awarded October 2025 ($131,690) and October 2024 ($128,901) — build tribal capacity to assess air quality conditions, develop regulatory programs, conduct reservation-wide air emissions monitoring, and submit data to the EPA's National Air Quality Database. The tribe holds recurring Child Care and Development Block Grant Discretionary awards ($141,017 effective October 2025 through September 2028) funding subsidized child care services and quality improvement initiatives for tribal families. The tribe also manages formula grants from the Administration on Aging for Older Americans Act Title VI nutrition and caregiver support services, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program awards through the Office of Community Services, and justice-focused grants including a $315,724 VOCA Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside grant (CFDA 16.841, October 2024) and a $400,000 Bureau of Justice Assistance Treatment Court Discretionary Grant for a Tribal Youth Healing to Wellness Court incorporating traditional cultural practices.

Activity has remained relatively flat over the past five years — 13 awards in 2022, 17 in 2023, 12 in 2024, 13 in 2025, and 4 in the first eight months of 2026 — with 21 awards (combined potential value not specified in source) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete risk or renewal cycles. The tribe holds a subsidiary, Bishop Paiute Development Corporation, certified as tribally owned, minority owned, and a small disadvantaged business, though the source does not detail its distinct role or operations. Combined obligated dollars across the portfolio total $128.5 million; grants span social services, infrastructure, cultural preservation, environmental management, and community policing across 46 distinct federal agencies, with the EPA, HHS Administration for Children and Families, and HHS Administration for Community Living anchoring the volume.