Last week, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) announced a new initiative, Seven Star Communities, to highlight the excellent work being done by Native communities to “strengthen self-determination and close the digital divide through sustainable digital inclusion work.”

Over the past few years, ILSR has documented the efforts of record numbers of Native nations to take control of their own digital futures by launching Tribally-owned and controlled broadband projects.

But infrastructure is only part of the story of how Tribes are closing the digital divide in Indian Country. Increasingly, Native nations are also advancing digital inclusion priorities and programs that foreground self-determination and sovereignty.

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Seven Star Communities aims to recognize and amplify these digital equity initiatives while supporting the growth of a vibrant community of Indigenous digital equity practitioners. The initiative was developed in partnership with AMERIND Critical Infrastructure, a Tribally-owned company that supports Tribal broadband deployment, and informed by the expertise of a group of advisors and mentors active in Tribal broadband and digital equity.

Felix McGowan, Director of AMERIND Critical Infrastructure, notes that the initiative recognizes “Native communities who are adapting to the new digital environment. They have been adapting digital inclusion efforts in innovative ways and practicing effective, sustainable self-governance.”

What began as a three-day intensive learning experience focused on building and running Tribal Internet networks has become a can’t-miss gathering of broadband-minded Tribal leaders coming together to “shore up historic disparities in connectivity in Indian Country,” as the Associated Press recently reported.

Followers of this site have likely read or heard about ILSR’s deep involvement in the on-going series of Tribal Broadband Bootcamps (TBB) hosted in different Tribal regions several times a year since the initiative began in 2021. Now, word is spreading far beyond Indian Country.

Last week, the Associated Press shined a spotlight on the most recent bootcamp, which last month was once again convened at the southern California ranch of TBB co-founder Matthew Rantanen.

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The article, authored by AP reporter Kavish Harjai, provides an inside look at the most recent bootcamp, highlighting an aspect of the digital divide often overlooked in a nation that historically has been either hostile towards Indigenous communities or has treated Native Nations with benign neglect:

“More than 1 in 5 homes on tribal lands lack access to adequate broadband, compared to fewer than one in 10 on non-tribal land in 2024.”

“Tribal nations have struggled to connect to the web for a variety of reasons ranging from living in remote locations to lack of investment by [I]nternet service providers. The lack of service has hampered every aspect of 21st century life, from health care and education access to the ability to start a business and stay in touch with friends and family.”

The AP story captures the vision behind the initiative led by Rantanen and ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks program director and TBB co-founder Christopher Mitchell:

TBB11 marked an exciting development for the Tribal Broadband Bootcamps.

For this latest and newest iteration, TBB co-founder Matt Rantanen graciously permitted TBB to make a permanent fiber ring installation on his property, RantanenTown Ranch, last month. While TBB will continue to host bootcamps in partnership with Tribes in different regions of North America, the launch of this permanent broadband practice arena allows TBB to chart a new path towards even more in-depth and hands-on training.

Here is a photo-filled look at the many days of prep and three days of immersive programming that went into making it happen.

“Just the fact that we saw the fiber model in its open aspect with all the drama and issues right in front of us; my friends is the best learning methodology!” – TBB 11 Attendee

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Ready or Not

Of course, building an entire, operating fiber network across RantanenTown Ranch was a massive undertaking that involved a lot of prep work.

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The Tribal Broadband Bootcamps (TBB) – a three-day intensive learning experience focused on building and running Tribal Internet networks – are becoming even more immersive as the 11th TBB is now underway at the homestead of TBB co-founder Matthew Rantanen.

As more Tribal nations build out their own broadband networks to deliver service to Indigenous communities in the most disconnected areas of North America, broadband-minded Tribal leaders and instructors continue to gather in different Tribal regions across the country several times a year for the ultimate Indian Country networking experience.

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This time participants descended on “RantanenTown Ranch” in Aguanga, California – part of southern California’s Inland Empire region near Temecula.

With help from ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director and TBB co-founder Christopher Mitchell, and a handful of other instructors, the ranch has been transformed into a working demonstration site so participants could better learn the technologies involved in constructing broadband networks, while taking a deep-dive into what it takes to operate a network.

All of the previous bootcamps offered hands-on training. But, this particular bootcamp took it up a notch as TBB instructors set up a full deployment demonstration, illustrating how fiber is buried and/or deployed aerially.

Digging In

The Tribal Business of Broadband webinar series, a virtual extension of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamps, continues later this month with a focus on wireless Tribal networks.

It will be held on December 19 at 2 pm ET.

As historic investments are being made to bring better broadband to Indian Country, the webinars are designed to be a practical resource for Tribal leaders seeking to expand high-speed Internet access within Indigenous communities.

Coming on the heels of the first webinar in the series, which focused on high-level business considerations in establishing Tribal networks, this second webinar will cover what it takes to deploy wireless networks, the spectrum licensing involved, and other related issues.

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Like the previous webinar, the lineup of speakers bring in-depth knowledge and experience in the building and operation of Tribal networks. Speakers for the Dec. 19 webinar include: Brandon Ramon, Network Operations Center Supervisor for the Tohono O'odham Utility Authority; Matthew “Speygee” Douglas, Broadband Manager for the Hoopa Valley Tribe's Public Utilities District; and Monica Braine, Project Specialist for AMERIND Critical Infrastructure. The conversation will be moderated by Brooke Munroe, Director of the Tribal Resource Center.

Pre-registration is not required. Interested participants can watch the webinar live here.

As Tribal Broadband Bootcamps (TBB) prepares later this month to host its ninth bootcamp since the initiative began in 2021, TBB is now offering a series of webinars that will explore different ways of organizing a Tribal Broadband Network.

The Business of Broadband webinars will hone in on how Indigenous networks approach the business of broadband, how they can be structured, how they price their services, and how they can strategically plan for their sustainability.

The introductory session will be held on October 30 at 2 pm ET and will be moderated by Revati Prasad, Vice President of Programs with the Benton Institute. The session will draw from the diverse experiences of seasoned Tribal Broadband experts, representing both regulated and non-regulated Tribal networks. One of the focuses of the first webinar will be to outline the high-level business considerations that arise when establishing Tribal networks.

Watch the webinar here, or below.

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As a young woman of the Nuxalk Nation, Mallory Hans is “clearing a path for future generations.”

A 2022 graduate of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, she’s one of about 50 people hailing from various Tribes and First Nations across North America in attendance for the latest Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, a three-day intensive learning experience focused on building and running Tribal Internet networks.

Held in different tribal regions several times a year since the initiative began in 2021, this bootcamp (the eighth in an ongoing series of hands-on seminars) is being hosted at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort on the Saint Regis Mohawk reservation along the New York/Canada border.

“So far so good,” Mallory said on Day Two of the bootcamp just as the attendees broke into small groups to go through a variety of demonstration stations set up by bootcamp instructors and Tribal employees who run Mohawk Networks, which provides fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet, video, and voice services across the reservation in northern New York.

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In continuing the driving impulse to demystify technologies and build capacity among cohorts in Tribal nations, Day Two was centered around fiber stations that included demonstrations of how network operation centers are run; one on fiber splicing; another showcasing equipment used to install fiber inside of households with representatives from Calix, and another station on the electronic equipment that measures the performance of fiber lines.

“I’m enjoying it, feeling more confident and finding out I’m capable,” said the 22 year-old, newly minted fiber technician.

The Community Broadband Networks (CBN) team here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is thrilled to announce we will once again welcome a postdoctoral fellow this coming fall to undertake a two-year project that advances policy initiatives in support of expanding broadband access and digital sovereignty for Tribal Nations across the U.S.

It’s the second time the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has selected ILSR as a host organization for a Leading Edge Fellowship, which embeds humanities and social science PhDs with nonprofits committed “to solve problems, build capacity, and advance justice and equity in society.”

Earlier this month, ACLS announced 18 new ACLS Leading Edge Fellows for 2023. In September, one of those fellows – Jessica E. Auer (PhD, History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – will join the CBN team, kicking off her full-time fellowship as a Tribal Broadband Policy Analyst.

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Jessica will conduct original research and writing to help develop policy narratives that can be used to support new and existing tribal broadband efforts.

With less than 60 percent of those living on Tribal lands in the lower 48 states having access to basic broadband connections – as Native Nations have regularly been excluded from policy conversations around these issues – Tribal citizens miss out on educational, economic, telehealth, social networking, and a panoply of other activities that foster community resiliency and democratic engagement in the modern world.