The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday selected the Cherokee Nation among 14 state and tribal grant awardees to support small businesses in northeast Oklahoma.
Cherokee Nation and Chickasaw Nation were the only two tribes awarded through the $75 million competitive grant, Investing in America Small Business Opportunity Program.
The tribes will each receive $2 million. The State of Oklahoma is also an awardee, receiving $4.2 million for an Oklahoma Center of Science and Technology cyber security program.
The program is supplementary to the Biden-Harris Administration's much larger State Small Business Credit Initiative, through which Cherokee Nation is slated to receive $86 million for small business loans, which Chief Hoskin announced during his annual State of the Nation address during the Cherokee National Holiday.
The overall grant program is designed to activate private-sector investment by supporting small businesses with needed legal, accounting and financial advisory services.
The Cherokee Nation has 460,000 citizens, employing 11,000 people through a variety of tribal enterprises ranging from aerospace and defense contracts to entertainment venues. The Nation is the largest tribal nation in the United States.
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