ANA's EAGLE Program Will Replace SEDS With Up to $900,000 Awards Across Five Tribal Economic Development Categories

Tribal and community-based organizations—particularly those in rural and Alaska Native communities—have until April 20, 2026, to comment on ANA's new EAGLE program, posted as opportunity 361908 on grants.gov, which will award up to $900,000 per project for Native economic development.

What EAGLE (HHS-2026-ACF-ANA-NEG-0120) Means for Tribal Economic Development

The Economic Advancement Grants for Local Empowerment program represents the most significant restructuring of ANA's community development funding in recent memory. Listed on grants.gov under NOFO number HHS-2026-ACF-ANA-NEG-0120, EAGLE will replace the longstanding Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) and SEDS-Alaska programs—the primary federal funding mechanism for tribal self-determination projects administered by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

ANA has signaled that EAGLE will reflect what the agency describes as a "pro-growth agenda" that strengthens both socioeconomic and cultural outcomes while placing greater emphasis on economic development. This priority was reinforced during ANA's 2025 Tribal Economic Development Consultation and at numerous conferences the agency attended throughout that year.

The shift is not cosmetic. Where SEDS offered broad flexibility—allowing communities to design and implement solutions tailored to their specific circumstances—EAGLE channels funding through five prescribed project areas, each with its own award ceiling and programmatic focus.

Five Project Areas and Their Award Ceilings

EAGLE structures its funding across five distinct program areas, each targeting a specific dimension of tribal economic and community development:

PA 1: Seventh Generation Greenhouses — Up to $800,000. This project area funds greenhouse development aimed at improving food quality and sovereignty while simultaneously creating business opportunities. For rural and tribal communities with limited access to fresh produce—particularly in Alaska and remote reservation communities—this represents a dual investment in nutrition and local entrepreneurship.

PA 2: Microgrids. Energy self-sufficiency is a persistent challenge for many tribal communities, particularly those in geographically isolated areas dependent on expensive diesel generation. The microgrid project area funds infrastructure designed to reduce energy costs and increase reliability—a foundational requirement for any sustained economic development. A specific award ceiling for this category has not yet been disclosed.

PA 3: Welders to Elders — Up to $500,000. This workforce development initiative focuses on welding skills training to enhance employment opportunities in tribal communities. The program name nods to the intergenerational knowledge transfer that ANA has historically prioritized, connecting practical trade skills with community economic needs.

PA 4: Tradition in Action—A Native Elder Program — Up to $500,000. Elder mentorship initiatives that connect youth with cultural knowledge and traditional practices. This program area bridges EAGLE's economic development mandate with ANA's longstanding commitment to cultural preservation, recognizing that economic resilience and cultural continuity are not separate goals for Native communities.

PA 5: Indigenous Designs to Empower and Advance Self-Determination (IDEAS) — Up to $900,000. The broadest and highest-funded project area, IDEAS carries EAGLE's largest per-award ceiling at $900,000. While detailed program guidance awaits the full NOFO publication, the framing suggests this category may absorb some of the flexible, community-designed project work that SEDS historically supported.

All EAGLE awards are intended to be fully funded for three-year project periods, a structure consistent with SEDS precedent.

The SEDS Legacy: $21 Million and 24 Awards Per Year

Understanding EAGLE requires understanding what it replaces. The SEDS program, under CFDA number 93.612, distributed approximately $21 million annually across an estimated 24 awards ranging from $100,000 to $900,000. Eligible applicants included federally recognized Indian tribes, incorporated non-federally and state-recognized tribes, Alaska Native villages, nonprofit organizations serving Native communities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.

SEDS was, by design, open-ended. Tribes and tribal organizations could propose projects addressing whatever challenges their community identified as most pressing—whether that was building a community center, launching a small business incubator, or preserving a traditional food system. The program's flexibility was its defining feature and, for many grantees, its greatest value.

ANA's most recent announcement of $37.1 million in grants to Native American communities across all program areas underscores the scale of funding at stake in this transition. The estimated FY2026 federal obligation for Native American Programs overall is approximately $29.5 million.

Why the Alaska Federation of Natives Is Sounding the Alarm

Not everyone sees EAGLE as progress. The Alaska Federation of Natives has publicly urged tribal organizations to submit comments before the April 20 deadline, characterizing EAGLE as "a very narrowly targeted" replacement that fails to address Alaska tribes' specific needs around land, utilities, and trade training.

AFN's core concern is that EAGLE's five prescribed project areas replace SEDS's self-determined framework with what the organization calls "increasingly prescriptive funding rather than the self-determined funding" required under the Native American Programs Act. For Alaska Native villages—many of which face a unique combination of extreme remoteness, infrastructure deficits, and subsistence economies—the loss of SEDS-AK's dedicated set-aside compounds the problem.

The concern is not hypothetical. AFN points to a historical precedent: Alaska previously lost the SEDS-AK set-aside entirely because stakeholders failed to submit comments during an earlier notice period. Regaining that set-aside required years of sustained advocacy. The organization is determined not to repeat that experience.

The AI3 Action Institute: EAGLE's Companion Program

EAGLE does not stand alone in ANA's FY2026 restructuring. The agency has also proposed the AI3 Action Institute, a companion program focused on expanding access to advanced technologies in Native communities. Unlike EAGLE's multi-grantee structure, AI3 would direct its funding to a single grant recipient—a cooperative agreement model that concentrates resources but limits the number of communities directly served.

Together, EAGLE and AI3 replace the entire SEDS program portfolio. ANA is also consolidating its four existing Training and Technical Assistance contracts into a single cooperative agreement valued at up to $3.1 million, aimed at improving service coordination and reducing administrative burden for grant recipients.

What Community Organizations Should Do Before April 20

The public comment period on ANA's proposed policy changes closes April 20, 2026. A separate Notice of Proposed Rulemaking comment period extends to April 27, 2026. These are not application deadlines; the full EAGLE NOFO with specific application instructions and due dates has not yet been published on grants.gov. But the comment period is the mechanism by which tribal and community-based organizations can shape how EAGLE is implemented.

Organizations considering a comment should focus on:

• Whether the five project areas adequately represent community needs. If your community's most pressing economic development priorities don't fit neatly into greenhouses, microgrids, welding, elder programs, or IDEAS, say so explicitly. ANA has historically been responsive to substantive public comment.
• The loss of SEDS flexibility. If your organization has used SEDS funding for projects that would not qualify under EAGLE's named categories, document that history and explain why programmatic flexibility matters for your community.
• Alaska-specific concerns. If you represent an Alaska Native village or regional organization, AFN's warning about the SEDS-AK set-aside makes commenting especially critical.

Comments can be submitted through the Federal Register notice (document number 2026-05484).

For organizations preparing to apply once the full NOFO drops, now is the time to identify which of EAGLE's five project areas best aligns with your community's economic development strategy. Review your capacity for the cost-sharing requirements that ANA grants typically carry, and ensure your SAM.gov registration is current—a requirement that catches first-time applicants off guard every funding cycle.

You can explore active tribal and Native American economic development grants on Granted to identify funding streams that complement or run parallel to EAGLE's project areas. For broader grant strategy and preparation guidance, visit the Granted blog.

A Bet on Targeted Investment Over Tribal Autonomy

ANA's shift from SEDS to EAGLE reflects a broader philosophical question in federal Indian policy: whether targeted, prescriptive grant programs produce better outcomes than flexible, community-directed ones. EAGLE's proponents argue that concentrating resources in proven economic development categories—food sovereignty, energy independence, workforce training—will generate more measurable impact per dollar. Critics counter that no federal agency can prescribe what 574 federally recognized tribes, plus Alaska Native villages and Native Hawaiian organizations, each need most.

The answer will play out over the next three years of EAGLE awards. But the architecture of that answer is being decided right now, in a comment period that closes tomorrow. For community-based organizations that depend on ANA funding, this is not a notice to file away. It is a call to respond.