Arizona officials say they’ll work with a tribal-owned firm to help bring broadband access to Native American communities around the state. The money comes from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Development, or BEAD program.
Joe Valandra, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe from South Dakota and chairman and CEO of Tribal Ready BPC, says while there’s been a good amount of money set aside for this purpose, it’s still not enough.
Tribal Ready BPC will be working with the Arizona State Broadband Office on this project. Valandra joined The Show to discuss whether it’s possible to describe the state of broadband in Indian Country within Arizona.
Full conversation
JOE VALANDRA: Well, there's 22 tribes in Arizona and some are located close to high population areas and those tend to have better connectivity. Some have taken the bull by the horns and made sure that like Gila River, for example, but many tribes are located in, in very remote areas like White Mountain Apache, San Carlos, others like that that have great challenges bringing modern conductivity to their, to their communities.
So it really spans the range from, from very good to almost none at all. And it's hard to generate, it's hard to generalize more than that, but it really is quite a range. And that's typical across Indian Country.
MARK BRODIE: OK. So how significant do you think it will be that you are now working with the state broadband office to try to increase it and improve that situation across the state?
VALANDRA: Well, I think we believe the way the state of Arizona does that, given that we're a Native-owned company, understand that perspective that we can help explain help, you know, help bring people together so that they can take it, or at least have the opportunity to take advantage of the funding that's available through the state of Arizona. And that will be significant. Just that tribes know they have that option and that they know they have the ability with that option in hand to provide better service for their communities.
BRODIE: So you mentioned the number of communities that are in more remote parts of the state, and there have been efforts over the years to get broadband into more rural parts of Arizona. But it seems like at least as it relates to, to Native American communities, maybe it hasn't worked as well as supporters had hoped it would. I'm wondering if you have a sense of why that is like all these years later, a lot of these communities are still in the same position they were many years earlier.
VALANDRA: Well, I think it's a complicated answer but I'll try to distill it into a couple of salient points, knowing that I might be leaving a couple of things out. You know, the, the current providers, the universe of, of current providers are commercial operations. So it has to be economically feasible for them on some basis to, to enter those markets to make the capital investment and the other long-term investments that are necessary to provide the service. That's not an excuse, but it's a reason.
And unfortunately, when you look at the percentage of Native communities with adequate service, I won't say great service, across the country, Arizona is no different. It's substantially less. It's, you know, 20 to 30% less on a generalized answer by community.
And again, that's the investment funds available to the tribes. I mean, tribes, tribal communities have a different view on the investment. It's a, it's a benefit to the community. But until you have the funds to make that investment and it's substantial to, to bring high-speed broadband to a community, it's, you know, you, you're relying on the commercial viability of your area.
And if you're, you know, pretty remote with relatively small communities, either clustered together or spread out as many are, you know, it's a tough economic investment for a commercial company to make. So that's why it's very significant that the federal government and the state of Arizona have funds now to help tribes make that investment so that the commercial viability of it is not the first thing. It's still a factor in terms of making sure that there's long term sustainability and all those kinds of things, but it's not the first factor when there's federal government and, and state interest in making sure that those, those communities get connected.
BRODIE: What kind of impact do you think you can make with the amount of money that you'll have available?
VALANDRA: Well, the state of Arizona has, I think, over $1 billion that has come to it through the BEAD program. There's lots of competing priorities, we understand that. But we think by making tribes aware that they have access to those BEAD funds, helping the tribes understand what it takes to apply for those grants.
I think it will be a major, major impact for tribal communities. And the state of Arizona should be commended for, you know, making this effort, making sure that the tribal communities in Arizona are included in that process.
BRODIE: You talk about competing priorities and I wonder especially for some of the remote, remote communities where for example, reliable electricity and housing and other economic development needs are so great. Where does broadband sort of fit into the universe of, of needs that those communities have? And you know, things that communities would like or need to spend money on.
VALANDRA: There's a lot of first priorities within, within Indian Country within the, within the the tribal communities in particular in Arizona. But I will tell you this looking to the future. I think it's a, it's, it's safe to say that being connected to the internet at the, at the fastest possible speeds with the most reliability, connectivity will make a difference across the board in that it facilitates better health care, it facilitates better education or at least the opportunity to connect into a broader universe of educational opportunities as well as economic development.
All those things, combined along with everything else you can do with the internet, help build an economic base for the tribes that then can help address the other needs, the housing needs, the public safety needs, those kinds of things.
BRODIE: Are there cultural considerations with any tribes in terms of bringing something like high-speed internet to their communities?
VALANDRA: I'm glad you asked that question. One thing that's being talked about, it has been for some time now, is something called tribal data sovereignty. Tribes are sovereign nations within the United States. But one of the things that, that we advocate and we talk to tribes about all the time is protecting their data.
So yes, there are issues and and steps that tribal nations are taking to make sure that the data that flows from their community is protected by tribal data sovereignty that you know the right permissions are given, the understanding of how the data will be used and when it will be used and by whom it will be used are important considerations. And we're making sure that the tribes know that and are aware of it and are working on it right now.
BRODIE: Do you find that there is consensus within tribal communities about how best to do that and maybe what the, the rules of the road should be?
VALANDRA: Well, I think it's a process, you know, because if your community has really never had strong connectivity or maybe not at all, you know, it's an issue that may be sort of foundational that you need to sort of build from the ground up. But to answer your question more broadly, yes, I think there is consensus that protecting history, genealogy, ancestral knowledge is a very important part.
In fact, I don't think there's anything more important to, to tribes and protecting that and making sure that it's used and accessed in ways that are respectful and, and abide by the traditions and laws of each individual tribe.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline has been updated to correct Joe Valandra's role.
