- Details
- By Brian Edwards
- Native Contracting
Two Native-owned firms have joined forces to launch a new joint venture aimed at delivering infrastructure projects for tribal and federal clients.
Grey Snow Native Strategies, LLC brings together Grey Snow Professional Services, a tribally owned SBA 8(a) firm under the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, and Native Strategies LLC, a Native-owned civil engineering and construction management company founded by Cherokee Nation citizen Steven Hollabaugh.
Iowa Tribe Chairman Timothy Rhodd said the partnership aligns with the tribe’s broader economic development strategy. “This is more than a business arrangement — it’s a way to deepen our capacity to serve Indian Country,” Rhodd said. “By aligning with Native Strategies, we’re combining our technical resources and expanding relationships in a way that benefits tribal communities.”
That alignment wasn’t forged overnight. The two companies spent months getting to know one another — and each other’s leadership — before formalizing the joint venture. The partnership was built on shared values after multiple in-person meetings between Hollabaugh, Iowa Tribe Chairman Timothy Rhodd, and Grey Snow Management Solutions CEO David Tam, according to Fletcher Burton, president of the tribe’s federal contracting unit. “They took the time to get to know each other, understand values, and ensure alignment,” Burton said. “It was a relationship formed at the leadership level — before any paperwork was drawn up.”
(L-R): Burton, Hollabaugh
Structured as a 51/49 joint venture with Grey Snow holding majority ownership, the entity qualifies as a tribally owned 8(a) firm — making it eligible for sole-source federal contracts that are non-protestable, exempt from justification, and faster to award.
The launch comes as federal agencies expand the contracting authority for tribal 8(a) firms. In June 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council proposed raising the sole-source ceiling from $100 million to $150 million for the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Coast Guard, and from $25 million to $30 million for civilian agencies.
Hollabaugh said the venture grew out of conversations he had with Rhodd, who was looking for ways to get more infrastructure projects delivered efficiently for the tribe and its partners.
“They were trying to figure out how to get more completed for tribes in this fashion,” Hollabaugh told Tribal Business News. “We had some good conversations and just took it from there.”
The joint venture will target projects for both federal and tribal clients, with an initial focus on water infrastructure, civil engineering, and construction management. Hollabaugh said the joint venture was already positioned to start delivering on several previously delayed projects — including pipeline and waterline work — that were waiting for the joint venture to be put in place.
“We’ve heard from both tribes and federal agencies that they needed help getting projects delivered quickly,” Hollabaugh said. “This structure gives us the flexibility to meet that demand.”
Native Strategies, based in Broken Arrow, Okla., brings engineering expertise and a growing national footprint. Since its launch in early 2020, the firm has expanded from a one-person operation to a 33-person remote team that has won federal contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including national water-system assessments and architecture and engineering services across Indian Country. The firm has also worked directly with more than 36 tribes to date and indirectly with hundreds more.
White Cloud, Kan.-based Grey Snow Professional Services, meanwhile, has focused on construction, base operations, and EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) services. The firm is part of the Iowa Tribe’s broader economic strategy, which includes a recently launched 10-gigabit fiber network in Kansas and an activated Foreign Trade Zone in Missouri — positioning the tribe to become a regional hub for logistics and intertribal trade.
Burton said the new joint venture was formed with an eye toward long-term growth — not just to win projects, but to build a track record of high-quality performance. “We’re aiming for strong CPARS scores,” he said, referring to the federal government’s contractor performance rating system. “That past performance is gold in this industry. It’s what opens the door to more work and lets you build something that lasts.”
The joint venture will prioritize agencies within the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and Bureau of Reclamation, Hollabaugh said. But he also emphasized the joint venture will support tribal governments using federal grant funding to execute infrastructure projects.
In addition to its focus on tribal and 8(a) set-aside opportunities, the JV plans to compete more broadly across the federal market. Burton added that while the JV will pursue 8(a) and ISBEE (Indian Small Business Economic Enterprise) set-asides, it also intends to bid on full-and-open competitions to avoid the perception of cherry-picking easy wins. “We want to show we can compete with anyone,” he said.
That broader perspective is rooted in a realization that came later than it should have, Rhodd has acknowledged. “We had the ruby slippers on the whole time and didn’t know we could click our heels,” Chairman Rhodd has remarked, according to Burton — a metaphor for how the tribe came to realize its potential in federal contracting.
“Our missions are aligned,” Hollabaugh said. “This is about helping tribes complete their projects without losing funding — and building long-term capacity along the way.”
