The U.S. Department of Commerce is awarding $4.2 million to Tribal communities in Arizona, Colorado and Wisconsin for improvements to broadband service and connectivity.
The funding will provide additional resources to Tribal lands historically underserved by broadband and “lay the groundwork for the funding provided by President Biden’s recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” a Dec. 22, 2021 Commerce Department press release said.
“Too many Americans, especially those living on reservations and in Tribal communities, lack reliable, high-speed broadband—if they are even lucky enough to have internet at all,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in the release. “In our increasingly interconnected world, internet is not a luxury, it is a necessity, and this basic lack of access is an injustice.”
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado will receive $3.2 million to install high-speed internet service connecting its reservation and the city of Tawaoc, the Tribe’s capital, to Cortez, Colorado, the release said. The project will aid the community by “increasing access to distance learning and telemedicine, supporting public safety, and allowing for business and entrepreneurial growth across the reservation and region.”
An additional $1 million is being provided to Yavapai-Apache Nation in Arizona and the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin for broadband planning projects, the release said.
“The awards presented today build upon the broadband funding provided by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and reaffirm this administration’s commitment to ensuring that Tribal communities, and unserved and underserved communities across the country, have the resources they need to thrive in the 21st century,” Raimondo said in the release.
