Tribal enterprises — meaning firms owned by tribal nations, Alaska Native corporations and Native Hawaiian organizations — are making moves and money in government contracting.

They won a record $23.3 billion in federal contracts in 2023, marking the eighth consecutive year of growth according to a new analysis out from Tribal Business News.

Tribal firms are benefiting from larger total federal contracting budgets in recent years. But they’re also earning a growing share of the contracting pie, about 3% in 2023.

“A big part of that has been driven by tribes at the beginning of the pandemic kind of stepping back and analyzing their revenue streams,” said Casey Lozar with the Minneapolis Federal Reserve’s Center for Indian Country Development.

He said the pandemic hobbled businesses in the gaming and hospitality sectors, a major source of revenue for many tribal governments.

“(They realized) that further diversification is needed,” he said.

A lot of the recent growth comes from defense contracting, said Quinton Carroll, executive director of the Native American Contractors Association.

“I’d say it goes all the way from janitorial services at a military base to very advanced engineering contracts,” he said.

And since tribal nations typically don’t tax their citizens, Carroll said the revenue helps fund vital services.

“Whether that’s health care, schooling, education, infrastructure,” he said.

Contracting also creates jobs for Native workers living in their tribal communities, who, according to the Minneapolis Fed, currently face an unemployment rate twice the national average.