This Tiny Louisiana Tribe Is Teaming Up With Roger Stone to Score Big Wins in Trump’s Washington

During the past few months, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana scored an Oval Office visit, a meeting on its reservation with top federal officials and a $10 million no-bid contract for construction work at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.

The political and financial wins came after the tiny Native American tribe said in July it would nominate President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize — all while boosting its federal lobbying operation, including hiring longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone to lobby the government on “tribal economic issues.”

Stone has received $250,000 from the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe from mid-April to the end of September, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

Stone’s company, the Florida-based Drake Ventures, began lobbying at the federal level shortly after Trump began his second term this year. It’s since received a combined $1 million from four separate clients, including the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, which declined interview requests and did not respond to a detailed list of questions, is notable for its size — or lack of it.

It’s one of the smallest to be federally recognized: 278 individuals live on its reservation in Louisiana, according to Census Bureau data, and the tribe estimates there are about 1,500 registered members scattered throughout the United States.

But the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s political influence efforts are decidedly outsized. And while the tribe has maintained lobbyists in Washington for decades, its lobbying spending has skyrocketed since Trump began his second term.

The tribe and its subsidiaries spent $590,000 on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2025, up from $290,000 during the same period in 2024, according to federal lobbying data analyzed by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks money in politics.

It also rejiggered its lobbyist lineup.

In September, the tribe split with lobbying giant Cornerstone Government Affairs, and in addition to contracting with Stone’s firm, it hired Connector Inc. in mid-September to lobby the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Congress “to ensure the Tunica Biloxi Economic Development Authority achieves their business and financial goals.”

During an Oval Office meeting with Trump in July, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s chair, Marshall Pierite, reportedly pitched partnerships on a range of projects between the Trump administration and tribes as “a major catalyst for job creation and prosperity for both Native Americans and all Americans.”

“As someone who spent a lifetime in the construction industry, I recognize the serious obstacles that overregulation poses in building any new facility or business in America,” Trump said at the time.

“President Trump has strengthened ties with many of our nation’s tribes — from the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe to the Lumbee Tribe, who he directed to receive federal recognition via executive order. The president will always advocate to make every community strong, safe, and great again,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told NOTUS on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, other subsidiaries of Tunica-Biloxi Industries, a holding company managed by the tribe’s business development arm, have recently snagged government contracts, including a $5.6 million deal in January with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps of Engineers contract was also sole sourced, meaning the government only solicits a proposal from one source, while standard procurements require multiple bidders. But the agency justified the award as a set-aside for small businesses — and awarded the contract almost four months after the solicitation went out. The contract, which runs through March, involved inspecting and repairing equipment at a water-pump station outside New Orleans.

“This is just the beginning as we carve a path forward in the federal contracting arena,” Tabitha Frost, the president of Tunica-Biloxi Services and “an architect of the Tribe’s expansion into federal contracting,” said in a statement in April.

The tribe’s biggest contract came on Sept. 30, when the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations awarded Tunica-Biloxi Services, a subsidiary of Tunica-Biloxi Industries, $10 million for “design and construction services for an existing chancery in US Embassy Singapore.”

The award was made just four days after the bureau issued a sole source solicitation on Sept. 26, according to federal contracting data available on USASpending.gov. The agency justified the no-bid award by citing a federal statute that allows sole source solicitation when “only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

“The Department of State remains committed to supporting small businesses and fostering economic opportunities through programs like the [Small Business Administration’s] 8(a) initiative. This award reflects our dedication to ensuring the highest standards of quality and efficiency in overseas construction projects,” a State Department spokesperson told NOTUS.

Stone on Wednesday told NOTUS he “never lobbied any agency of government to win government contracts for any of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s ancillary businesses.”

“My work for the tribe is limited to expanding non-casino gaming economic development on tribal lands for all tribes involved in a coalition of Native American tribes that the Tunica-Biloxi has taken the leadership in organizing,” Stone told NOTUS. “All of this is reflected in my entirely accurate lobbying filing.”

In his official filings with Congress, Stone reported lobbying the Department of the Interior and Office of the Vice President on behalf of the tribe, but not the State Department.

Another firm registered to lobby on behalf of the tribe, Jenner & Block, has reported no lobbying activity on the account this year. It’s not clear what work — if any — Connector Inc., which did not respond to requests for comment, did for the tribe during the brief time in September that they had worked together, since the firm did not file a lobbying report covering activity during the summer and early autumn.

Stone did disclose working on a conference for the tribe during the third quarter of this year, when the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe convened more than 30 tribal leaders and federal officials on their reservation.

Among the Trump administration officials in attendance: Christine Serrano Glassner, the special assistant to the president and the deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Mark Cruz, a senior adviser for the Immediate Office of the Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services; and Diane Cullo, an assistant administrator at the Small Business Administration’s Office of Native American Affairs.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Ken Bellmard, the deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development at the Office of Indian Affairs, delivered video messages.

But Stone’s participation was a “key highlight of the event,” according to the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s press release on the event, which noted the lobbyist “reaffirmed the administration’s dedication to tribal sovereignty and its eagerness to collaborate on economic development projects.”

Stone’s involvement with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe is particularly notable given his personal history.

His work during the 1980s and 1990s with the likes of Paul Manafort and Charlie Black laid the foundation of the modern lobbying industry. More recently, he’s also forged a strong relationship with Trump at a time when few professional lobbyists do.

Stone has worked with the now-president for decades, including as a lobbyist for Trump’s casino business in the 1990s — which entailed efforts to undermine the growing Native American casino industry that was encroaching on his business interests.

But in 2019, Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing proceedings related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe — convictions he still continues to disclose on his lobbying filings, as required by federal law.

Trump, however, commuted Stone’s 40-month sentence and later pardoned him in 2020. Stone ultimately served no time in prison.

The Biden-era Justice Department, for its part, sued Stone and his wife in 2021, alleging the Stones used Drake Ventures — the lobbying firm with which the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe now contracts — to shield income and assets from the IRS. The parties settled in 2022 for more than $2 million.

In addition to the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, Stone has registered to lobby for Roger Ver, the so-called “Bitcoin Jesus” who hired Stone in February and paid him $600,000 in the first quarter; real-estate closing company Timios, which paid Stone a $30,000 retainer during the second and third quarter; and Trident Zoetic Company, a rare-earth-mineral strategic venture. Stone disclosed receiving $100,000 during the second quarter to lobby the Department of the Treasury on “rare Earth mineral opportunities.”

Having Stone on retainer is a boon for the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe as it increases its footprint in Washington. The tribe’s recent acquisition of human resources firm GovStrive has also expanded its power to attract federal contracts.

“This is not just about the signing of an agreement, but about a shared vision for the future,” Pierite said in a statement after the deal was announced. “By welcoming GovStrive into our family of enterprises, we will expand our presence in the federal marketplace, create jobs for our people, strengthen the long-term stability of our Tribe, and create opportunities in the communities we serve.”