Mille Lacs tribe awarded $3M in federal funding to boost its entrepreneurship

MINNEAPOLIS -- Over $3 million in federal funding has been awarded to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to boost tribal entrepreneurship.

On Tuesday, U.S. senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith announced that the Economic Development Administration awarded the funding, which is provided through the American Rescue Plan's Indigenous Communities program.

The goal is to enable the construction of a "tribal business incubator" in order to help small businesses and start-ups have access to technical assistance.

"We want to wrap marketing resources around them, the low-cost physical spaces," Dustin Goslin, vice president of Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, said. "Our goal is to touch them as much as possible with the technical assistance, so we can help them as they take the journey of business ownership."

The funding is in addition to the $1 million announced in April. 

"Minnesota's Tribal Nations have deep cultural and economic significance across our state," Smith said. "I am pleased to announce this investment in the Mille Lacs Band reservation in Minnesota, which will help to grow and diversify the local economy. This investment, made possible by the American Rescue Plan, will create jobs and generate private investment so that the local economy can build back stronger in the wake of the pandemic."

The federal Indigenous Communities program has allocated $100 million specifically to support tribal governments and Indigenous communities.