Forest County Potawatomi Community

Forest County Potawatomi Community, doing business as Forest County Potawatomi Tribe, is a federally recognized Indian tribe headquartered in Crandon, Wisconsin, that receives federal grant funding as a prime recipient across health, social services, transportation, environmental, cultural, and community development programs. The tribe operates as a tribal government entity and competes predominantly through federal grant allocations rather than competitive procurement; it also receives sub-awards from state pass-through grantors, particularly the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Department of Children and Families.

The tribe's federal footprint spans roughly 315 prime grant awards and 85 sub-awards across a recent five-year period (2022–2026), with award volume accelerating from 18 grants in 2022 to 85 in 2024 before moderating to 30 in 2025 and 9 in early 2026. The combined dollar obligation across all awards reaches $271.8 million against a combined potential value of $9 thousand, reflecting the source's treatment of dollar magnitudes. Customer concentration concentrates across five HHS operating divisions: the Administration for Children and Families (26 awards), Public Health Service (25 awards), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA, 21 awards), and Administration for Community Living (21 awards) together account for 29% of recent awards. The tribe also receives direct allocations from the Federal Highway Administration (transportation and tribal transportation programs), the Environmental Protection Agency (air quality, water quality, solid waste, and environmental capacity building), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (library and cultural center programming), the National Park Service (historic preservation and cultural resource protection), and the Department of Justice (victim services, substance abuse treatment, and justice system support).

The tribe's grant portfolio emphasizes health and human services delivery. Representative work includes block grants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), and Child Support Services; formula grants for the Older Americans Act nutrition and caregiver support programs; and project grants for opioid response, substance abuse treatment, mental health capacity building, and diabetes prevention. The tribe operates a Community Wellness Court (established 2014) and a Family Treatment Court to address substance use disorder and child-welfare outcomes through evidence-based practices and culturally integrated treatment services. Transportation grants support tribal transit operations and capital projects—including electric vehicle acquisition—as well as tribal transportation infrastructure such as road construction, bridge replacement, and pedestrian/bicycle facilities across the Forest County Potawatomi Indian reservation in northern Wisconsin. Environmental programs address air quality monitoring, water quality protection, radon mitigation, solid waste management, geothermal feasibility assessment, and climate action planning under the Inflation Reduction Act and Clean Water Act frameworks. Cultural programming encompasses library services, historic preservation, language immersion (Potawatomi), youth prevention activities integrating traditional cultural engagement, and NAGPRA-related human remains and cultural item repatriation efforts.

The tribe also operates two subsidiaries: Potawatomi Business Development Corp (tribally owned, minority-owned for-profit firm) and Potawatomi TPS JV, LLC (tribally owned, Indian Economic Enterprise, Indian small business economic enterprise, self-certified small disadvantaged business, limited liability company). These entities appear positioned for commercial and contracting activity but do not dominate the source's grant-recipient award history.

The source shows 21 awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete activity across health, transportation, and environmental grant programs. Sub-award activity reflects pass-through federal funding routed through state agencies—primarily Wisconsin's Department of Health Services (which sub-awards TANF, Medicaid, AODA treatment, mental health block grants, public health infrastructure, and workforce development funds) and Department of Children and Families (which sub-awards child welfare, child care, and victim services funding). The tribe also receives direct federal sub-awards as a partner or service provider on Department of Justice victim services and domestic violence programs administered through Wisconsin.