Fort Mojave Tribal Council

Fort Mojave Tribal Council, doing business as Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, is a federally recognized tribal government headquartered in Needles, California, that operates as a prime recipient of federal grants and holds a single federal contract vehicle. The tribe competes for federal funding on a full-and-open basis without set-aside designations, serving tribal members across Arizona, California, and Nevada. Fort Mojave Tribal Council operates three tribally owned subsidiaries: Fort Mojave Telecommunications Inc., Fort Mojave Construction Inc. (a self-certified small disadvantaged business), and Aha Macav Power Service.

The tribe's federal footprint is dominated by grants and formula funding rather than competitive contracts. Recent prime contract work is limited to annual Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) services awards from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—five definitive contracts ranging from $30,000 to $33,000 annually between October 2021 and October 2025, with no set-asides used. The tribe also holds a single-award Basic Ordering Agreement with the Veterans Integrated Service Network 22 (ceiling $0, effective September 2021 through June 2024). Grant work substantially outweighs contract activity across 299 prime awards (96% of the footprint) versus 14 sub awards (4%).

Federal grant concentration is broad across 32 distinct customer agencies, though five agencies account for 49% of awards. The Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Education leads by volume with 62 awards; the Department of Health and Human Services public health and family services divisions (27 awards, Public Health Service) and children and aging divisions (23 each) round out the top five, alongside the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (23 awards). By potential value, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission anchors $343 thousand of the $528 thousand combined potential across all awards, though this figure reflects the formula-grant structure where a large number of smaller grants carry modest individual ceilings. The tribe's actual obligated federal dollars total $54.9 million, indicating substantial historical revenue flow from formula and competitive grant awards that carry far higher real obligated values than their listed potential-value ceilings suggest.

The tribe operates as a prime recipient across multiple federal grant programs. Recurring grant categories include Older Americans Act Title VI, Part A (Native American grants, Administration on Aging), Nutrition Services for Native Americans (Administration on Aging, formula), Child Care and Development Fund and Block Grant Discretionary awards (Office of Child Care, formula and block), Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, project grants with administrative awards in the $140 thousand to $215 thousand range), Family Violence Prevention and Services grants (Administration on Children and Families, formula), Indian Education Formula Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Office of Elementary and Secondary Education), and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) adult and dislocated-worker sub awards from the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Environmental grants include Bureau of Reclamation Indian Tribal Water Resources Development, Management, and Protection funding—a $615 thousand project grant awarded October 2025 for replacement of irrigation pumping infrastructure on the California side of the reservation—and EPA Region 9 water quality and nonpoint-source management awards ($180 thousand, $75 thousand, and $122 thousand formula grants). Health services include Special Diabetes Program for Indians treatment and prevention (Indian Health Service, cooperative agreement through December 2027) and public health emergency preparedness sub awards from the Arizona Department of Health Services. The tribe received a $160 thousand block grant for Older Americans Act Title VI supportive services (Administration on Aging, January 2022 through September 2024) and a $545 thousand block grant for family violence shelter and supportive services (Administration for Children and Families, October 2021 through September 2025). Grant sub-award activity through the Arizona Department of Economic Security includes WIOA adult training, dislocated-worker retraining, and youth employment services; the tribe acts as sub-recipient on these flow-through awards from state workforce development systems.

Activity has remained modest and fluctuating—11 awards in 2022, 17 in 2023, 14 in 2024, 11 in 2025, and 4 in the first quarter of 2026. Twelve awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, carrying combined potential value of $33 thousand. The vast majority of the tribe's federal relationship centers on grant administration for community services—nutrition assistance, child care, workforce development, health services, environmental protection, and education—rather than procurement of goods or services from contractors. The tribe's federal contract posture is narrowly focused on the annual TERO agreement with EEOC, making it a grantor-focused entity rather than a competitive procurement player in the traditional sense.