The Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations received an update this week about the $36 million grant the Wind River Development Fund recently received from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program.
The money will be used to fund projects supporting the local groups that signed on as co-applicants for the grant, WRDF Director of Business Development Erika Yarber said.
“Technically the WRDF (doesn’t) have a specific project,” she explained. “We don’t have a revolving loan fund that we submitted to, we don’t have an add-on to (our) building – we don’t have anything that we ourselves are getting from these.
“It is for the betterment of the reservation and all the leaders that we have brought to the table.”
WRDF
The WRDF is a nonprofit Native Community Development Financial Institution that provides “financial opportunities to stimulate economic development on and near the Wind River Indian Reservation,” according to its mission statement.
In other words, Yarber said, “our job is actually to access capital and get that out in the form of loans to generate economic development on the reservation.”
“So we see this (grant) as a huge part of our job when it comes to economic development,” she said. “We’re really proud of all the leaders we pulled to the table and the projects that were proposed as a coalition – as a community – not just for the reservation but for Fremont County and our whole entire state.”
The WRDF will continue to focus on its “primary mission” of attracting “lending capital to this area” and distributing it “in the form of very competitive, low-interest loans to Native entrepreneurs (and) the ag industry,” Executive Director Paul Huberty noted – adding that the organization currently has enough capital “lined up” to cover at least two years of local lending.
“We’ve got a really good lending team, and so they’re going to stay focused on that while some of the rest of us start on this new adventure,” he said.
Projects
Yarber provided an outline of the projects the WRDF co-applicants selected for the grant, beginning with the construction of a 14,400-square-foot Tribal Buffalo Center at the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, whose Executive Director Jason Baldes has been “working hard (for) decades” toward “his big dream” of “having a cultural center and buffalo center up at his place across from Morton Lake.”
“We will be able to provide him with a buffalo center (for) cultural preservation and for tourism,” she said.
Another project will fund the construction of a new 5,900-sqare-foot office/museum and 7,200-sqare-foot storage facility for Tribal Fish and Game to support ecotourism, according to a press release.
Yarber pointed out that Tribal Fish and Game Director Art Lawson and Office Manager Wilma Wagon have been “at it for a long time, managing 2.2 million acres with four game wardens and two support staff” from the “the little house right behind the Trading Post.”
Now, she said, “we actually get to build Art and Wilma a Tribal Fish and Game center across from the hot springs.”
The prospect is “super exciting,” she said, especially because the duo “have been phenomenal at engaging our youth,” with Lawson running a youth program and Wagon running a women’s program.
The next project Yarber mentioned will support workforce development on the reservation in partnership with Central Wyoming College.
“We will be offering certification directly here on the reservation – at St. Stephen’s School and (at) Tribal Health,” she said.
The certifications identified for the project “have to do with jobs that are actually needed in Fremont County,” she noted – like nursing and culinary trades – and they come with “wraparound services” that should help “eliminate the barriers” to success for students who need assistance obtaining things like childcare or transportation to accommodate their attendance at school.
An “additional certification” will be offered for people interested in trail maintenance, she added.
“That will go right into eco-tourism with Art Lawson, who has the funding for 156 miles of trail maintenance throughout the reservation,” Yarber said.
Another project will support “land sovereignty” on the reservation by working with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes to identify areas where they’d like to see more economic development, Yarber continued.
The WRDF will also promote “food sovereignty” and “seed prep” by collaborating with the local Wind River Food Sovereignty Project, which is “standing up a demonstration farm” on 30 acres of land they purchased in the Trout Creek area, Yarber said.
Some food sovereignty funding will also support a food bank being developed on the reservation, she noted.
Finally, Yarber said, the WRDF will use grant money to help build “a healthier workforce” on the reservation by supporting local Tribal Health departments with “supplemental funding” and “diabetes prevention.”
Governance
Some money will also be set aside to “build the systems and the governance” needed to “make sure that these projects succeed,” WRDF Chief Financial Officer Lisa Wagner said.
“We’re very committed (to) supporting our partners in those areas as well,” she said. “We recognize the impacts of these projects are huge, and we have so much excitement around them. But we also recognize how important it is (for) all of our partners to succeed. … So we’ll be building capacity, adding new staff, and building in systems that we feel confident will help us succeed in these projects.”
After hearing from the WRDF, Wyoming Rep. Ember Oakley, R-Riverton, who co-chairs the Tribal Relations Committee, commended the organization for its “great work.”
“That’s amazing and exciting,” she said. “I recognize and see the importance in every single one … of the projects that you just outlined. (This is) great news.”
For more information call the WRDF at (307) 335-7330.