Media Alert: Tribal Business News >> Native-owned startup Tribal Solutions Medical delivers critical PPE to tribal ventures
“Our goal in introducing this to Indian Country is for tribes to start gaining ownership and creating a pipeline from Indian Country to the global market. It is time for Indian Country to lead the way on global initiatives, and I think owning and creating our own products is the way to go... We are going to help Indian Country transition from stewardship to ownership in the next generation.”
JACKSON, Miss. — Tribal Solutions Medical LLC began as an attempt to combat a glut of offshore-made personal protective equipment flowing into Indian Country in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-founder Marshall Pierite, who also serves as chairman of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, said the sudden demand for PPE caused tribes to scramble to get equipment for their health care providers and vulnerable populations.
“We’ve seen so many tribes taken advantage of by vendors that had products coming from China or try to sell bogus products, meaning the product wasn’t there or the products were flawed,” Pierite told Tribal Business News.
PPE and health care products distributor Tribal Solutions Medical developed alliances with large buying groups that gave the company access to “almost any level of PPE that is required, in whatever quantity is required,” Pierite said of the masks, gloves, gowns and other products that Tribal Solutions Medical sourced.
Through those alliances, Tribal Solutions Medical cut prices by a range of 17-26 percent compared to other sellers, and passed those savings along to the company’s tribal clients. The group also services tribally owned and Native American-owned hospitality and health care ventures across the country.
As of April 2021, the company said that it generated $1 million in sales of PPE, data collection, and preventative health products.
For Pierite, that milestone was less about reaching a financial mark and more a sign that Tribal Solutions Medical responded to a growing and urgent need in Indian Country throughout the height of the pandemic.
“It was very humbling, because we knew we were getting our product out to Indian Country,” Pierite said. “It was helping those that needed help, it was providing a ray of hope, a ray of sunlight to those that was much needed.”
