Walker River Paiute Tribe

Walker River Paiute Tribe, a federally recognized tribal government headquartered in Schurz, Nevada, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants across infrastructure, community services, and cultural preservation — not as a federal contractor. The tribe receives grants from 44 distinct federal agencies across 247 total awards (242 prime, 5 sub-awards), with combined dollars obligated at $140 million against a combined potential value of $59 thousand, reflecting formula grants and project awards structured as recurring or multi-year commitments rather than one-time procurements.

The tribe's grant footprint concentrates in three principal customer agencies: the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Education (58 awards), the Environmental Protection Agency (27 awards plus 16 additional awards from EPA Region 9), and the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (33 awards combined across two organizational paths). These top three account for approximately 54% of awards by count. The tribe's recent activity shows a moderated trajectory — averaging 9 awards per year from 2024 through 2025, down from 14 in 2022 — with 12 awards reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and facing potential recompete.

Work performed spans water infrastructure, transportation, public health and aging services, public safety and tribal justice, environmental remediation and resource management, cultural and historic preservation, broadband deployment, and local food systems development. Representative prime grant work includes a $2.24 million Bureau of Reclamation domestic water supply project (CFDA 15.514, awarded July 2025) for construction and installation of a 410,000-gallon water storage tank and distribution piping to serve the reservation; a $871,600 Department of Justice Violence Against Women Discretionary Grant (CFDA 16.587, awarded October 2024) funding the tribe's Victim Services Program for transitional housing, victim advocacy, counseling, and youth outreach; a $650,433 Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Energy Development Capacity grant (CFDA 15.148, awarded September 2024) for geothermal resource assessment and subsurface modeling in collaboration with Blackrock Geoscience and the U.S. Geological Survey; a $958,040 HUD Indian Community Development Block Grant (CFDA 14.862, awarded July 2026) for housing and living environment improvements; a $552,532 Federal Transit Administration low-emission shuttle bus project (CFDA 20.526, awarded September 2025) to establish public transportation serving the reservation and 39-mile radius with no existing transit; a $147,916 Institute of Museum and Library Services Native American Museum Services Program award (CFDA 45.308, awarded September 2026, through August 2029) for repatriation and collections care infrastructure; and recurring formula grants from the Administration on Aging under Older Americans Act Title VI for Native American caregivers support and nutrition services (CFDA 93.044, 93.045, 93.053), awarded annually with March 2029 completion dates.

The tribe also holds sub-award positions as grant sub-recipient to prime grantees: Nevada Clean Energy Fund sub-awards (March 2025) for water, energy, and food infrastructure including a net-zero nutritional wellness building with community resilience hub features and water system improvement construction, and a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation sub-award (September 2024) for Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat restoration, riparian tree protection and planting, traditional foods collection, and trail construction.

The single definitive prime contract award in the source is a $33 thousand firm-fixed-price Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contract (awarded October 2025, completion September 2026) for tribal employment opportunity and civil rights compliance work, designated for FY 2026 Tribal Employment Rights Office activities without set-aside application.

Federal grant recipients may subaward to partners and collaborators as detailed in cooperative agreement and project grant descriptions; the tribe does not operate as a federal contractor and does not bid on contract vehicles.