Michigan tribal firm partners on $225M defense global logistics contract

Michigan tribal firm partners on $225M defense global logistics contract

January 27, 2025

A Southwest Michigan tribally owned professional services group was awarded a seat on a 10-year, $225 million defense logistics contract.

Bodwé Professional Services Group — part of Mno-Bmadsen, the non-gaming investment arm of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi — formed a joint venture with Pennsylvania-based firm, KVG, to pursue the Naval Supply Systems Command’s Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract (WEXMAC).

“We’ve been working on this for a little over 8 months, so it was pretty exciting when we got the award right before the end of the year,” Jeremy Berg, chief operating officer at Bodwé, told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “It’s a validation of our strategy to grow our footprint in our overseas logistics space.”

Dowagiac-based Bodwé started a strategic initiative in early 2024 to determine what sectors tribally owned organizations have avoided, ultimately identifying overseas logistics support as one area tribes are not major players in, Berg said. Bodwé then intentionally put together a team to start working in overseas logistics and partnered with KVG because of its expertise in the field, he said.

“This is not really a place that other tribal organizations are engaged in yet, so it is unique and significant for a tribal organization to be positioned in this key aid and support work,” Berg said. “The contract is set up to provide rapid responses to a wide variety of logistics around the globe, both for the Department of Defense, but also for humanitarian and diplomatic missions.

“We’re able to lay the foundation for tribal organizations to get into these humanitarian global missions, so it’s something we’re pretty excited about.”

Bodwé-KVG JV LLC’s seat on the latest WEXMAC puts it in the small business pool of eight to 12 contractors that will compete work on the contract, Berg said. The five-year base period has a ceiling of $225 million, with five one-year option periods and an overall ceiling of $455 million.

“The first task order is out right now and we’re working on bidding it and getting our proposal in, but we’re confident that we’ve got the right partner and the right team,” Berg said. “We’re confident we’re going to be competing for and winning a good chunk of this work, so we’re excited.”

Even though tribally owned firms do not have much of a presence working in the field, tribal members frequently serve in the U.S. military, Berg said.

Indigenous people serve in the U.S. military at higher rates than any other group, according to information on the U.S. Army Reserve website. In 2023, there were 120,476 single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. armed forces, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from Oct. 2024.  

As well, tribally owned organizations have been competing for a greater share of government contracts in recent years. According to a report from Tribal Business News, federal awards to tribal enterprises set a record in the 2023 fiscal year at $23.3 billion, driven primarily by double-digit growth in U.S. Department of Defense contracts. Native entities secured 3.05% of the total federal dollars awarded in the 2023 fiscal year, per the report.

Research from the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis shows that Native entities’ involvement in federal contracting has grown over the last 40 years, largely thanks to participation in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) business development program that helps small, disadvantaged companies to secure federal work.

Federal contracting also helps diversify tribal, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian economies. According to the CICD, federal contracting is the second-largest source of overall revenue for tribes behind Indian gaming, but it has been growing at an annualized rate of 41.6% since 1988, which compares to 16.8% for gaming in the same period.

Bodwé has experience that will help it compete on the WEXMAC contract, which involves construction, project management and procurement. As well, Gettysburg, Pa.-based KVG, a SBA-certified, service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that has served as a prime contractor since 2013, was the leading performer globally on the previous WEXMAC contract, Berg said.

Bodwé-KVG JV LLC is an SBA-certified 8(a) contractor and is participating in the agency’s mentor-protégé program that matches small businesses with existing federal contractors to help them scale.

“We are thrilled to continue our support of the WEXMAC program now with Bodwé, which not only reinforces the strength of our partnership, but also highlights the trust placed in our joint capabilities,” Eli Abbott, president at KVG, said in a statement. “This award only begins to demonstrate our shared vision of efficiency, in addition to delivering immediately impactful results for (Naval Supply Systems Command).”

The contract also will allow Bodwé to do work internationally, which Berg said is especially noteworthy for the tribally owned firm.

“It’s pretty neat for a tribal organization as we start to have employees that are outside of the United States who get to learn about the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi,” Berg said. “We’re expanding the band’s legacy and people’s knowledge of the tribe, so it really fits into our mission of expanding the economy and legacy through professional services.”

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