Caddo Nation Economic Development Authority (CNEDA)

The Caddo Nation Economic Development Authority (CNEDA) was created by the Tribal Council in late 2022 to help grow the Nation’s economy by building the foundation for long-term growth. CNEDA began operation in 2023.   After several planning meetings, tribal leaders realized that lasting economic progress would require building strong businesses through planning rather than focusing on short-term gains and identified areas that would have an easy on-ramp for its enterprise development and could service growing needs of the Caddo Nation itself first and foremost. In just 2.5 years, CNEDA has built a portfolio of companies that are poised for growth. 

CNEDA was set up as a tribal instrumentality and chartered by the tribal Council under tribal law—this means it is wholly owned by the Nation, but operates like a modern business holding company. CNEDA has a five-member boardand includes the Tribal Chairman and Kelly Factor serves as the ex-officio member of board to bring representation of the Tribal Council. The Board’s  role is to support and oversee a group of tribally owned businesses, called subsidiaries, and is support by CNEDA Chief Operations Officer Roberta Carson. 

Each Business Under CNEDA:

• Is created under tribal law and operated pursuant to Articles of Operation
• Has its own management, bank account, and tax ID number
• Manager-Managed similar to state-registered LLC
• Wholly owned by CNEDA, its parent company. 
• All benefits flow to the Caddo Nation

  One of these businesses is a start-up  Shared Services Company called Wistsi Shared Services, which will handle back-office tasks—like accounting, HR, and payroll—for all the others, so they can focus on growing.

The purpose of CNEDA is not quick profit. It’s about building the foundation for long-term economic success. This includes:

• Supporting the Nation’s taxation programs
• Developing energy and infrastructure projects for the nation
• Keeping more of the Nation’s dollars circulating in Caddo hands
• Helping implement the Caddo Nation Resiliency Plan

CNEDA, and its subsidiaries, are set up to conform to the best practices in Indian Country for economic development, separating enterprise from tribal politics and functioning like private businesses and emphasizing sustainable and culturally appropriate strategies. This includes a diversified portfolio. 

CNEDA is  led by experts in tribal government, finance, energy, and Indian law. Together, they are working to build a stronger future for the Caddo people—one that honors our sovereignty and supports generations to come.

To get these start-ups off the ground, Tribal Chairmen Bobby Gonzalez and Vice-chairmen Zackeree Kelin stepped up to fill the role of initial managers for the companies. 

Within just 2.5 years of starting operations, CNEDA has also built an impressive portfolio of grant opportunities to study and plan for energy sovereignty. These are highlighted below. 

This also allowed to focus on the local economy and through the purchasing and operation of the tribe’s retail division—George’s, Mckees, and C-stores. CNEDA has been enlisted to help grow revenues from those endeavors. 

WHY CNEDA?

The Caddo Nation is a proud and strong tribal nation with a long history. Like any community, the Caddo people want good jobs, better homes, strong businesses, and more opportunities for the future. That’s where the Caddo Nation Economic Development Authority, or CNEDA, comes in.

Think of CNEDA like the business team for the Caddo Nation.

 2nd Annual Native Energy Symposium. The symposium, hosted by the Caddo Nation, SAKU, and the University of Oklahoma's RANGE project team, ICAST, and Native Nations Center brought together 36 tribal nations from Oklahoma and surrounding states. This important relationship with the University of Oklahoma is opening opportunities for the tribe, leading to engagement with funders and change makers in Indian Country, and is a community service. As you may or may not know, the University sits on the lands of our ancestors, is a vital educational pipeline for our people, and close to one of the largest Caddo population centers. Being visible in this space is a critical local involvement, an exercise of our sovereign power to convene, and is a critical component developing our energy sovereignty. The second annual symposium will be held October 2 and 3rd at the Sam Noble Museum. Last year’s attendees and speakers included representatives and tribal leaders from tribes all over the state, the Department of Energy, significant industry participation, and leading researchers from OU in the energy space. We expect another great symposium this year.  

By passing and implementing the 2024 Oil & Gas Severance Tax Code, the Nation has collected well over a $1 million from operators on our lands. After helping draft the Code, with the leadership and expertise of Chairmen Gonzalez, the tribal attorney, Tax Administrator, energy experts, myself and others, a reliable regime to notify, monitor, verify, and collect from producers producing on our lands in which we hold an interest. We have also monitored production opportunities for members, which is reflected in the recent lease sale that generated millions of dollars in bonuses for the Caddo Allottees and bonus opportunities for the tribe itself. Taxing, monitoring, and evaluating production on our lands is yet another example of energy sovereignty in action producing results for our membership and the tribe.  

• Formal and Biweekly meetings with Anadarko Agency, Division of Energy Mineral Development (DEMD), and Indian Energy Service Center: A great deal of complexity has been created around Nation’s reality holdings due to our shared history with the Wichita and Delaware tribes, with an extra dose of complexity resulting from extensive fractionation of our lands through allotment and probate and the lack of monitoring by previous Caddo administrations. Chairmen Gonzalez, along with CNEDA and our strategic partners, and Tax Administrator, have now established productive relationships with these federal partners by continuous engagements and worked methodically, cooperatively, and directly to obtain the Tribe’s land and encumbrance data. In turn, this has allowed us to start mapping the energy infrastructure and opportunities across our lands, and we have begun to digitize our realty records. These efforts are an on-going, critical step in exercising energy sovereignty, and laying a foundation to bring the realty functions in-house. The partnership and hard work with DEMD and the  local agency is a strong example critical relationship and capacity building, and DEMD is holding Caddo up as an example for other tribes pursuing energy sovereignty. This is in addition to all the work leadership is doing on intertribal, state, and national levels to protect and expand our funding opportunities in the energy space.

• Oil and Gas Well Plugging, Remediation, and Reclamation Act: 

The Caddo Nation’s Indian country jurisdiction is the location of numerous idled, abandoned, and orphaned oil and gas wells, as well as injection wells and water disposal wells. These wells potentially pose a threat to Tribal lands and natural resources, as well as to the public health and safety, if they are not plugged, and if the sites are not reclaimed and remediated, in accordance with recognized standards. This problem has been present in Caddo Indian Country but unaddressed essentially since production began in the Anadarko basin. We do not know of any previous efforts by any previous Caddo administrations to tackle this, until now. 

This legislation was therefore necessary to ensure that abandoned and orphaned wells are plugged in compliance with established standards and health and safety regulations so as to protect Tribal lands and resources, to ensure financial responsibility for lease site remediation while allowing for flexibility with operators who demonstrate responsible environmental practices, to ensure transparency and accountability, and to establish reasonable consequences for non‐compliance. This legislation is the result of the Orphan Well Development Grant and was created through CNEDA’s efforts and collaboration with the tribal attorney and leadership with the support and engagement of tribal leadership and staff.

 The HEARTH Act Leasing Code, which allows for the agricultural, business, residential, wind and solar resource (WSR), or wind energy evaluation leases (WEEL) as well as public, religious, cultural, educational, and recreational leasing by the Caddo Nation of its own lands without secretarial approval and is critical step in self-determination and building capacity within the tribe. The Code will next go through the BIA approval process, but it too is an important expression of sovereignty, particularly energy sovereignty, being implemented with the support of tribal leadership and CNEDA. 

• The Caddo Nation 477 Plan: A Tribal 477 Plan is a federally authorized framework that allows tribal governments to consolidate funding from multiple federal programs related to employment, training, education, and childcare into a single, integrated plan. Authorized under Public Law 102-477, this approach gives tribes greater flexibility to design and administer services in a way that aligns with local priorities, streamlines reporting requirements, allows for waivers of grant limitations, reduces administrative burdens, and promotes holistic support for Caddo individuals and families. It further allows us to get out of a grant models based on reimbursement and draw down funds at the award date, which in turn allows us to reinvest the interest into the program. 

At the direction of Chairmen Gonzalez, CNEDA along with Tribal Administrator Travis Threlkeld, and Grants Manager (she wears other hats too) Polly Edwards obtained a planning grant from the BIA to draft the 477 plan. The initial draft has been created and will be submitted to various funding agencies once finalized. It represents yet another meaningful and wonderful example of “policy or infrastructure changes have been made at the local level to reflect energy sovereignty priorities.” 

The Caddo Nation will be among the first tribes, if not the first, to include energy-related grants and energy sovereignty in such a plan. This groundbreaking plan is designed to reduce red tape while promoting employment and training opportunities. It is an expression of our sovereignty generally, and our energy sovereignty specifically. It is a historic step for the tribe, which should be celebrated.