Fort Belknap Indian Community

Fort Belknap Indian Community, doing business as Fort Belknap Industries, is a federally recognized tribal government headquartered in Harlem, Montana that operates as a federal grant recipient (94% of recent awards) serving the Aaniiih (Gros Ventre) and Nakoda (Assiniboine) tribes on the 675,147-acre Fort Belknap Reservation. The entity holds SBA certifications as an 8(a) Business Development Program participant and a HUBZone firm, with approximately 7,000 enrolled tribal members of which roughly 3,400 reside on the reservation. Fort Belknap Industries also operates as a prime contractor, having recently received a $447,825 purchase order from the Indian Health Service for water, sewer, and trash utilities at Fort Belknap Hospital and Eagle Child Health Station in Harlem and Hays, Montana, running through September 2031 with four option years.

Fort Belknap's federal footprint spans 64 customer agencies across 302 total awards (283 prime, 19 sub-recipient), with concentrated activity in tribal health services, community development, environmental remediation, transit operations, child welfare, aging services, and infrastructure planning. The top five customer agencies by award count—Environmental Protection Agency (20 awards), Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (19 awards), Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration (14 awards), National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (14 awards), and a second HHS Administration for Community Living listing (13 awards)—account for 26% of recent awards. The Indian Health Service dominates by potential value at $448 thousand. Recent grant work exemplifies the scope: a $1.465 million Department of Transportation cooperative agreement under the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program (CFDA 20.943) to support legal, technical, and financial advisors for Fort Belknap Route 11 infrastructure; a $2.326 million Interior Department grant for orphaned well remediation and reclamation on tribal lands under the Energy Community Revitalization Program (CFDA 15.018); a $2 million Department of Agriculture local food purchase assistance cooperative agreement (CFDA 10.182) supporting socially disadvantaged farmers; and a $1.596 million Department of Health and Human Services Child Care and Development Block Grant Discretionary award (CFDA 93.575) providing child care subsidies for low-income families.

Activity has remained steady across the past five years (21 to 24 awards annually), with 23 awards reaching completion or option expiration within the next twenty-four months, representing near-term recompete exposure. Fort Belknap receives recurring formula grants under established federal tribal programs including the Older Americans Act Title VI grants (Administration on Aging), Child Care and Development Fund mandatory and discretionary funding (Office of Child Care), child support enforcement block grants (Office of Child Support Enforcement), transit operations assistance (Federal Transit Administration), and tribal child welfare social services (Administration on Children and Families). Grant work also includes project-based awards in health research—a $175,600 National Institute of General Medical Sciences cooperative agreement (CFDA 93.859) for the Tribal Undergraduate to Graduate Research Training and Leadership Experiences (TURTLE) program addressing youth suicide prevention through partnerships with Johns Hopkins School of Nursing—and community policing, with a $534,210 Department of Justice COPS Office hiring grant (CFDA 16.710) and a $131,305 equipment and training grant (CFDA 16.710) to advance community policing capacity on the reservation.

Fort Belknap also acts as a sub-recipient under pass-through arrangements with Montana state agencies, including the Department of Military Affairs (roads, bridges, and recreation facility projects), Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and WIC nutrition programs), and Montana Department of Transportation (tribal roadway safety initiatives). The parent entity, Fort Belknap Community Council, operates Indian Action Program as a division and maintains a subsidiary, Buffalo Horse Inc., a tribally owned Indian Small Business Economic Enterprise. Performance occurs on the Fort Belknap Reservation in north-central Montana, serving both on-reservation tribal members and off-reservation trust lands.