Menominee Tribe Posts SSBCI Grant Addendum, New MTE Procurement Notices

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin's public procurement page added new activity Sunday, posting an addendum to its State Small Business Credit Initiative Technical Assistance Grant alongside several fresh procurement notices tied to Menominee Tribal Enterprises, the tribally chartered forestry and lumber operation based in Neopit.

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin holds $167,130 in approved SSBCI Technical Assistance grant funding, a program administered through the U.S. Department of the Treasury designed to help small businesses navigate the path to capital access. The addendum posted March 23 signals an update to the terms or scope of that grant, though the tribe had not yet released accompanying documentation publicly as of Monday.

Separately, the tribe operates an SSBCI loan participation program approved for up to $1,991,393, through which the tribe either purchases a portion of a loan originated by a lender or originates a companion loan, targeting businesses owned by tribal members, chartered by the tribe, or located on the Menominee reservation.

The MTE procurement notices represent a separate but parallel track of activity on the tribal RFP page. MTE is a major employer in the area, representing approximately 20% of the jobs in Menominee County. An instrumentality of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, MTE operates a sawmill and lumber drying operation in Neopit and actively manages more than 250,000 acres of forestland on tribal lands.

The Menominee Forest spans 217,000 commercial acres in Wisconsin's "tension zone," and through MTE's sustainable management practices, the operation harvests 75,000 cords of pulpwood and 14 million board feet of saw timber annually. Procurement contracts tied to that scale of operation can carry significant value for regional vendors and contractors.

Interested vendors can monitor the tribe's RFP and procurement page directly through the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin's official website at menominee-nsn.gov for specifics on each notice, including submission deadlines and scope of work. The tribe's SSBCI program was designed to take on capital access barriers in a county with a poverty rate approximately double the state's average, making the grant's continued development a closely watched indicator of economic progress on the reservation.