Hundreds of tribal households will be upgraded to more energy efficient and climate resilient standards with a major influx of federal cash.

Michigan received $87.9 million in federal funding for community projects across the state from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At least $26 million was earmarked for improvements for tribal housing among Michigan's 12 federally recognized Indigenous tribes, officials said.

Two of the five awarded projects in Michigan involve weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades for tribal homes.

The Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association will receive a $20 million grant, of which about $6 million will be divvied among those 12 federally recognized Indigenous tribes, including: Bay Mills Indian Community; Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa; Gun Lake Tribe; Keweenaw Bay Indian Community; Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; Little River Band of Ottawa; Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa; Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe; and, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa.

Any sub-awards granted to the tribes in Michigan are also set to receive a conditional 5% funding match from the federal Climate Justice Challenge, officials said.

Additionally, the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan received two awards, the first a $20 million grant to improve at least 300 tribal homes and 12 government facilities.

Finally, a $3 million grant was awarded to the Michigan Wild Rice Initiative, an effort to coordinate tribal, state, and local efforts to make a stewardship plan to protect and restore wild rice to Michigan's environment.

Wild rice is known as manoomin or mnomin in Anishinaabemowin, the Native language of the Indigenous Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes, which includes Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and more tribal nations across both the United States and Canada. The word means "good seed" or "good berry," and the species is key in the Anishinaabe creation and migration story.

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Do you know what manoomin is? Michigan's state native grain.