Tribal meat packing plant near Malta to open Aug. 4

The only tribally owned meat packing plant in America to have a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector on board is set to open Aug. 4 near Malta.

By JENNIFER PEREZ
Tribune Hi-Line Bureau

The Fort Belknap Little Rockies Meat Packing Inc. will put 21 people to work cutting, processing, wrapping, selling and delivering buffalo, beef, hogs and lamb products at its site about 3Þ miles northeast of Malta in Phillips County, project officials said.

The Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribal council bought the old Big Sky Beef building at a Phillip’s County sheriff’s foreclosure sale last December.

Along with a complete plant that can process up to 125 head of livestock a day, the $50,000 purchase includes roughly five acres of land at the site 53 miles northeast of the Fort Belknap Agency, the tribal headquarters, officials said.

Leonard Mingneaux, owner of L&L Meats of Malta, was hired as the plant’s general manager. He’s the full-time USDA inspector at what is now the second-ever Indian owned and operated processing plant in the country, said Fred DuBray, executive director of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative of Rapid City S.D.

With an unemployment rate of 70 to 80 percent on the 675,000-acre reservation, the plant will bring desperately needed jobs to reservation and the Hi-Line, said Delina Cuts The Rope, tribal employment adviser for the plant and director of the tribal employment and training "477" program.

"It will address some of our economic development distress," Cuts The Rope said.

The board of directors and Mingneaux continue to interview and screen applicants for another 20 professional and trainee positions who applied through the job service center in Glasgow, Cuts The Rope said.

Formerly known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, her program has an economic development plan to leverage the company’s workforce needs and help get clients off of the welfare-rolls.

Eleven of the jobs — ranging from laborers to a manager trainee — are minimum-wage positions supplemented by the tribal program, she said.

The tribal program also provides trainees $3,000 worth of equipment for job supplies, clothing, safety equipment and materials, Cuts the Rope said.

"Our primary objective is to provide employment," she said.

Roughly $2,000 worth of renovation work is under way to bring the plant into compliance with USDA regulations and to accommodate buffalo.

The company has its eyes on key government meat contracts that require USDA-approved products, Tribal Councilman John Allen said earlier this year.

Letters have been sent to congressional delegation seeking government contracts to produce specialty beef or buffalo for Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana Air National guard, USDA commodities and federal and state prisons, Allen said.

While only the federal government requires its products be USDA-approved, most of the markets demand it, DuBray said.

"It just opens up more markets if (the meat) carries that stamp," DuBray said.

Before the new plant was established, the only other Indian-owned plant was on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, which lacks a federal inspector, he said.

The fact that the plant processes buffalo opens the door to a larger market, DuBray said.

"There’s a lot of USDA-approved plants that are only geared toward cattle and other livestock that aren’t set up for buffalo, so it’s not an option," DuBray said.

The hope is to stimulate the Hi-Line economy, provide high-quality beef or buffalo to local businesses and reach the international and national market via Internet, Allen said earlier this year.

The InterTribal Bison Cooperative is helping the company with funding and marketing efforts, DuBray said.

"It’s really a great opportunity for the (Fort Belknap) tribe," DuBray said. "It’s going to be a big benefit to all of Indian country, especially in the production of meat products."

Formed in 1990 to help tribes in returning the buffalo to Indian country, the growing nonprofit group includes 52 tribes from 18 states who own up to 15,000 head of buffalo, DuBray said.

At least 1,500 head of buffalo are currently available for slaughter, he said.

The cooperative intends to develop a plan for the tribes wanting to market their buffalo, develop brand name and help other tribes follow Fort Belknap’s lead in the meat processing business, DuBray said.

"We see it just a beginning of a huge potential throughout Indian County," he said.

Several years ago Mingneaux helped the Fort Belknap Small Business Center draw up plans to build a packing and processing plant on the reservation, according to Jessie James-Hawley, a writer for the tribal newspaper.

Until recently, lack of funding and the excessive construction costs had forced the tribe to set the plan aside, James-Hawley reports.

In July, the company also got a $250,000 loan and a $100,000 line of credit from the Native American Bank, she reports.

With the help of U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a $500,000 appropriation for plant improvements recently was included in the Senate Interior Appropriations bill, according to Burns’ office.

The funding will be used on equipment to process specialty products, such as beef jerky, at the old shopping center at the Fort Belknap Agency off of Highway 2, James-Hawley reports.

The bill goes to the full Senate either this week or after Congress reconvenes in September.

If approved, the joint House-Senate conference committee will reconcile the difference between the two versions and send it back to the respective houses for final passage before going to the President.

A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively set for early September.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030724/localnews/638104.html