Ute Indian Tribe

Ute Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribal government headquartered in Fort Duchesne, Utah, operates as a federal grant recipient across health, education, workforce development, environmental management, and infrastructure programs, with the vast majority of its federal footprint consisting of formula and project grants rather than federal contracts. The Tribe acts as prime recipient on 377 awards (100% of tracked awards) and holds one sub-award, receiving $190.7 million in obligated dollars across a $21.9 million combined potential value portfolio spanning 378 awards since 1990. The Tribe does not hold federal contracts as a prime contractor and does not sit on federal contract vehicles such as GWACs or IDIQs.

Ute Indian Tribe's federal grant portfolio concentrates heavily in human services, social services, and environmental stewardship. The top customer agencies by award count—the Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service (24 awards), the HHS Administration for Community Living (22 awards), the Environmental Protection Agency (20 awards), and the HHS Administration for Children and Families (18 awards)—account for 27% of all recent awards. Representative grant work includes a $2.38 million five-year Head Start project grant from the Office of Head Start (CFDA 93.600, awarded April 2026) to deliver American Indian and Alaska Native early childhood education and family support services; a $100,000 EPA brownfields response formula grant (CFDA 66.817, awarded June 2026) to assess and remediate two brownfield sites on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation while enhancing the Tribe's response program capacity; a $1.029 million Federal Transit Administration formula grant (CFDA 20.509, awarded August 2025) supporting vehicle storage facility construction, wheelchair-accessible van acquisition, and transit operations; a $6.937 million Bureau of Reclamation drought-relief project grant (CFDA 15.514, awarded March 2025) to construct three wells, a water treatment facility, transmission pipeline, and 90,000-gallon storage tank serving 4,312 tribal members; and $467,613 in Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) administrative funding (CFDA 10.567, awarded October 2025) to manage nutrition assistance for income-eligible households. Child care and workforce development grants recur across multiple agencies: the Tribe holds active Child Care and Development Fund formula awards, Child Care and Development Block Grant discretionary awards, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program formula grants, and Native American Employment and Training grants (CFDA 17.265) supporting career services, occupational training, and follow-up employment support. EPA formula grants fund air quality monitoring, water quality protection, brownfields response, and underground storage tank prevention on tribal lands; the Tribe operates environmental compliance programs that generate semi-annual reporting obligations.

Activity has remained steady over the past five years—averaging 14 awards per year from 2022 to 2024 (with 2025 and 2026 showing lighter recent updates, likely incomplete data capture). Twenty-nine awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing recompete cycles for the Tribe's grant portfolio. The Tribe's subsidiary, Weeminuche Construction Authority, is a tribally owned firm certified as a minority-owned business, self-certified small disadvantaged business, and Indian Economic Enterprise; it does not appear prominently in the recent award data provided, suggesting it operates separately from or below the threshold of tracking in this portfolio snapshot.

Federal contract exposure is minimal—one small purchase order ($28,960, awarded January 2024 by Indian Health Service) for monthly water and trash services at the IHS Uintah and Ouray Health Clinic exercises an option year through January 2029. Two Basic Ordering Agreements (GS08B13270 and GS08B14198, both GSA leasing vehicles) carry 99 combined task orders with $19.5 million combined potential value, but these represent real estate leasing rather than service delivery and sit outside the Tribe's core federal mission footprint. The Tribe's federal presence is grant-driven and locally focused: it administers federally funded programs serving tribal members and lands on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, with no presence on defense, intelligence, or civilian IT contracts and no subcontractor role beneath prime contractors.