We write and update Tribal Mitigation Plans that meet 44 CFR 201.7 and the FEMA Tribal Mitigation Plan Review Guide. An approved plan is the precondition for Hazard Mitigation Assistance funding and for much of the non emergency assistance a nation can draw after a declaration. We handle the risk assessment, the mitigation strategy, the public process, tribal adoption, and FEMA regional review.
Federal mitigation dollars are gated by a document. Under 44 CFR 201.7, a federally recognized tribal government must have a FEMA approved Tribal Mitigation Plan in place to receive Hazard Mitigation Assistance funds as a recipient, and to qualify for certain non emergency Stafford Act assistance. The plan is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the risk analysis and the project pipeline a nation draws from when funding becomes available.
Roughly two thirds of federally recognized tribes do not have a current approved plan. Many wrote one once and let it lapse at the five year mark. Others are folded into a county or state multi jurisdictional plan that treats the reservation as a line item rather than a sovereign government with its own hazards, critical facilities, and cultural resources.
When a major event hits and a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program allocation opens, nations with a current plan submit projects. Nations without one spend the window trying to get a plan approved.
Every plan is built to the elements FEMA regional reviewers score: planning process, risk assessment, mitigation strategy, plan maintenance, and adoption. We use the FEMA Tribal Mitigation Plan Review Guide crosswalk as the working outline from day one, so the draft that reaches the regional office is already organized the way the reviewer reads it.
Send us the nation's name and we will check the approval date and expiration against public FEMA records, then tell you plainly whether you need a new plan, an update, or nothing at all. No cost and no obligation.
Full plan development, plan updates, and the technical work that surrounds a plan once it is approved.
A complete plan for a nation that has never had one or whose plan lapsed years ago. We stand up the tribal planning team, run the kickoff, build the hazard identification and risk assessment, develop the mitigation strategy and project list, write the plan maintenance procedures, run the public and stakeholder involvement process, prepare the adoption resolution, and carry the draft through FEMA regional review to approval.
Bringing an expiring or expired plan current. Updates are not a reprint. FEMA expects a demonstrated review of what changed: new hazard data and events, changed development and land use, progress on the previous mitigation actions, and a refreshed project list. We document the change analysis so the reviewer can see the update is real.
Profiles for the hazards that actually threaten the reservation, including severe storms, tornado, flood, wildfire, drought, extreme heat and cold, winter storm, earthquake, and dam failure where applicable. Vulnerability analysis covers critical facilities, tribal government buildings, housing stock, health facilities, utilities, enterprises, and cultural and historic resources.
Goals, objectives, and a prioritized action list built so that projects can move straight into a grant subapplication. Each action carries a lead department, a funding path, a rough cost, and a timeline, which is what turns a plan from a shelf document into an application ready pipeline.
Support on Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, and Flood Mitigation Assistance subapplications, including planning subapplications that fund the plan itself, scope and cost development, and benefit cost analysis inputs.
The obligations that begin after approval: annual review, integration with other tribal plans and codes, progress tracking on adopted actions, and continued public participation. We can serve as the outside facilitator for the annual cycle so the plan does not go quiet until year four.
Planning support that sits alongside the mitigation plan: resilience and continuity planning, floodplain and repetitive loss analysis, critical facility hardening studies, climate and hazard data integration, and coordination with the environmental and historic preservation review that FEMA grant projects require. This is the work most often solicited under NAICS 541620, Environmental Consulting Services.
When a disaster has already happened, cost effective mitigation can be added to Public Assistance permanent work under Section 406. We identify eligible measures facility by facility during project worksheet development, which is a different funding stream from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and is often underused.
A predictable sequence with defined tribal decision points. The nation controls the strategy. We carry the drafting, the analysis, and the coordination load.
Kickoff, planning team formation, data request, schedule, and a review of the previous plan if one exists.
Hazard identification, hazard profiles, critical facility inventory, vulnerability analysis, and loss estimation.
Capability assessment, goals, mitigation action development, prioritization, and funding paths.
Public and stakeholder input, tribal department review, draft to FEMA region, revisions, and council resolution.
FEMA approval, delivery of the final plan and appendices, and setup of the annual maintenance cycle.
Most mitigation planners have never valued a damaged building. That matters more than it sounds. A risk assessment is a loss estimate, and a mitigation action only survives benefit cost analysis if the avoided loss is credible. This firm brings 25 years of property and casualty catastrophe adjusting to that math, plus the Section 312 discipline that keeps insurance proceeds and federal grant dollars from colliding at closeout.
The firm is owned by an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and keeps an office within the Choctaw Nation reservation at Wister, Oklahoma. It is retainable under tribal procurement law, Indian preference, and federal set aside authorities, and it works within tribal sovereignty rather than around it.
| NAICS | Description | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 541620 | Environmental Consulting Services | Primary here |
| 541611 | Administrative and General Management Consulting Services | Secondary |
| 541618 | Other Management Consulting Services | Secondary |
| 541690 | Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services | Secondary |
| 541990 | All Other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services | Secondary |
NAICS 541620, Environmental Consulting Services, is the code most hazard mitigation and resilience planning work is solicited under, and it is a primary subcontracting target for this company. Primes competing 541620 planning task orders should reach out. The full registered code list is on the Government Contracting page.
Tribal councils, state hazard mitigation officers, and prime contractors all ask the same question before awarding planning work: is the person writing the plan trained to FEMA's standard. The firm's principal directs every engagement and holds FEMA IS-318.b Mitigation Planning for Local and Tribal Communities and IS-393 Introduction to Hazard Mitigation, plus ICS 100 and 200, IS-700 NIMS, IS-800 National Response Framework, IS-230, and IS-235. The Executive General Adjuster designation and 25 years of catastrophe loss experience sit behind the risk assessment and loss estimation work.
The documents this work is governed by. Reviewers score plans against these, so it is worth reading the primary sources rather than a summary of them.
Federal program status changes without notice. Before committing a budget or a subapplication schedule, confirm against the sources above and with your FEMA regional office or state hazard mitigation officer. Our FEMA program status page summarizes where things stand as of August 2026.
To receive FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant funds as a recipient, and to receive certain categories of non emergency Stafford Act assistance, a federally recognized tribe must have a FEMA approved Tribal Mitigation Plan under 44 CFR 201.7. A tribe may instead participate in a state or county multi jurisdictional plan, but that route limits the nation to subapplicant status and ties its eligibility to another government's plan cycle. Nations that intend to apply directly to FEMA maintain their own plan.
Approval lasts five years. Once a plan lapses, the nation is no longer eligible to receive Hazard Mitigation Assistance funds as a recipient until an updated plan is approved. Because updates require a full review cycle including risk assessment refresh, public and stakeholder involvement, tribal adoption, and FEMA regional review, the work should begin roughly a year before expiration.
In most cases yes. Mitigation planning is an eligible activity under FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance, including the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities. Planning subapplications are how many nations fund plan development and updates rather than paying from general funds. We help scope the planning subapplication as part of the engagement.
A new plan typically runs six to twelve months from kickoff to FEMA approval, and an update usually runs four to nine months. The variables are data availability, the number of participating departments and communities, the public involvement schedule, tribal council meeting dates, and FEMA regional review turnaround.
Yes. 44 CFR 201.7 is a regulation, and neither the FEMA Review Council report nor the pending legislation removes the planning requirement. Program delivery has been in motion since 2025, particularly for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, but the plan requirement in front of mitigation funding has held constant through every proposal on the table. Our FEMA program status page tracks the current picture with links to primary sources.
Send the nation's name and we will check the FEMA approval and expiration dates, then tell you whether you need a new plan, an update, or nothing at all.
Not a law firm. Okla Risk Advisors and Choctaw Strategies, LLC are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice or legal representation. The firm’s principal is not a licensed attorney. The Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law is a non attorney graduate degree. Nothing on this site creates an attorney client relationship, and nothing here should be relied on as legal advice. Clients are encouraged to retain their own counsel, and the firm routinely works alongside tribal, corporate, and outside counsel.
Not a public adjusting firm. The firm does not represent policyholders as a public adjuster and does not solicit public adjusting engagements. Claims work is performed for insurance carriers, managing general agents, third party administrators, program managers, independent adjusting firms, and self insured entities. Work for governmental and tribal clients is independent consulting and reconciliation, not policyholder advocacy. Adjusting services are provided only where the firm holds the required license or a valid reciprocal or emergency designation.
Expert, appraisal and umpire engagements. Availability is subject to conflict clearance and to any licensure, registration, or appointment requirements of the jurisdiction and the policy at issue. Some states regulate who may serve as an appraiser or umpire. The firm confirms its ability to serve before accepting an engagement. The firm accepts one role per matter and does not serve as both a party appointed appraiser and a retained testifying expert in the same dispute. No representation is made as to the outcome of any matter.
Not a government agency. The firm is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized to speak for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, or any other government or tribal government. Program summaries on this site describe public documents and are provided for reference. Federal program status and eligibility change without notice, and the governing regulation, policy, or notice of funding opportunity controls. The firm does not guarantee that any grant, obligation, appeal, award, or reimbursement will be approved or received.
Socioeconomic status. Choctaw Strategies, LLC is wholly owned by one individual who is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. This is individual Indian ownership. The company is not a tribally owned enterprise, an Alaska Native Corporation, or a Native Hawaiian Organization, and it does not hold the sole source authorities reserved to those entities. Indian Economic Enterprise and Indian Small Business Economic Enterprise status is self certified under the Buy Indian Act. The SBA 8(a) Business Development application is pending and no 8(a) certification is claimed. All representations are subject to verification in SAM.gov.
© 2026 Choctaw Strategies, LLC d/b/a Okla Risk Advisors. Content is provided for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice on a specific matter. chrischambers@oklariskadvisors.com