The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are among eight tribal nations that recently received an Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The $7.7 million grant will fund a 3,000-square-foot plant in Ronan designed to process up to 25 animals a week. The three-acre building site, located along Mink Lane, was part of a 31-acre parcel of tribal land annexed by the City of Ronan last summer.

In a statement, Tribal Council Chair Michael Dolson said the grant was spearheaded by the CSKT Office of Economic Development, which “has worked tirelessly to develop this initiative, and we look forward to the facility that will serve Tribal cattle producers, our Natural Resource Department, while continuing to help enhance our Tribal food sovereignty infrastructure with wild game and bison processing.”

CSKT Financial Management Division Director Gregory Spahr predicts the facility will take between 18 and 24 months to complete.

“The timeline might be accelerated or delayed due to circumstances beyond our control, like supply chain issues or other construction circumstances that anybody in the Mission Valley may have to navigate,” he said. “But we're actively beginning right now with site design.”

The Tribes plan to obtain USDA certification for the plant, which will require the plant and its employees to meet stringent standards for animal care and processing. Among those, the plant will need to have a short-term shaded or sheltered drop-off location for the delivery of live animals “for them to be cared for in a humane manner as they're entering into the process,” Spahr said.

The plant will be designed to process large animals, including bison, elk, deer and cattle, as well as smaller livestock, such as sheep and swine. According to the USDA grant announcement, “the new facility will enable the production of value-added meats for wholesale, retail, and cultural purposes, generating new income for the community.”

The plant, once fully operational, could employ up to 15 people, Spahr said, although initial estimates predict a smaller seasonal workforce.

One concern expressed by Ronan residents during the annexation meeting last summer was whether the animal remains would attract scavengers, smell, or potentially contaminate the city water system. The Tribes plan to eliminate odors and dissuade scavengers with a state-of-the-art system, designed with help from MSU Extension and Montana State University, that uses fibrous wood chips to compost animal remains. A similar system is used at the Missoula County Public Schools Agricultural Center.

Spahr emphasized that the plant’s primary purpose is to enhance indigenous animal harvesting and meat processing and provide local animal protein to tribal communities. He said animals could include bison, elk or deer harvested by tribal members and livestock from members who are in the meat-producing business, or from non-members interested in the service.

“We believe this is a business and we want to be able to provide a service or a fair value to someone who wants their livestock processed,” Spahr said. “We also believe we have a strong commitment to tribal members who may want to have their meat processed in a culturally appropriate manner too. We don't think that those things are mutually exclusive.”

Since the COVID pandemic, food security has become an even larger issue for the Tribes.

“In the pandemic world, and even in the post-pandemic world, we still believe in the ability for the tribal members to have the proteins that are here on the reservation for our diets.”

The processing plant is part of a larger to creating a sustainable local food supply that’s “rooted in what's here on the land that's so precious to them.”