Northern Cheyenne Tribe awarded $52M for Broadband Project – holds groundbreaking ceremony for new facility.

By Clara Caufield
Northern Cheyenne Correspondent

LAME DEER, Mont. – Nearly two hundred people gathered near the Little Wolf Capital Building to celebrate a ground-breaking ceremony for a soon-to-be broadband facility which will be located close to the current Tribal office. That program will extend improved internet services across the remote Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
The speakers ranged from the Tribal President, Serena Wetherelt; Jeff Little, Western Region President, Palmetto Engineering; Tribal Council Member, Norma Gourneau; spokespeople for MT Senators: Godfrey Enjady, Chairman of the newly formed Northern Cheyenne Communications Corporation (NCCC) and special invited guest Mona Thompson, former General Manager of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority.
Tribal member Shawn Old Mouse was the M.C. “When this project gets operational, we won’t have to drive to ‘hot spots’ or up on a big hill to get on the internet,” he joked.
Enjady started the Mescalero Apache telecom in 2000, a state-of-the art trial telecom that provides telecommunications and broadband services to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. He also serves as the President of the National Tribal Telecommunication ’Associations, FCCCCS tribal broadband task force, chairman of tribal affairs task force for national telecommunications cooperative association and member of the Connect New Mexico Council. Godfrey has testified several times to various Senate committees to advance broadband and telecommunication initiatives for tribal nations.
Thompson was recently appointed as the first member to serve on the board of directors for the Universal Service Administrative Company which promotes programs like e-rate, rural health care and lifeline. She advocates for telecom for tribal nations across the country. “We are all related,” she reminded the audience.
In 2022, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe was one of a few in America to receive a huge grant (fifty-two million plus) from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, totally funded by three billion. The Blackfeet and Salish Kootenai in Montana received similar funding.
The project at Northern Cheyenne is expected to connect more than 1,700 homes with high-speed Internet. About 5,000 people live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, but only about 59 percent of households have broadband Internet subscriptions. The goal is to begin providing expanded internet services on the reservation within the next few years.
Currently limited broadband is available on the reservation, sometimes simply disappearing. Those connections often lack the capacity needed for video conferencing, telemedicine, or social media. The problem is especially acute in homes where children might be attending remote classes while parents need heavy-duty Internet for work.
The grant funding was allocated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The award represents the latest national investment in Internet infrastructure for rural areas. In October, the Blackfeet Nation and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes received additional millions to enhance Internet access. Those funds are expected to connect 927 homes on the Flathead Reservation and 4,482 homes on the Blackfeet Reservation.
The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is a nearly $3 billion grant program, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Northern Cheyenne facility will support the equipment and staff to properly serve the tribal nation, guarantee uptime, customer relationship management, and security service levels required by the new network infrastructure:
The new building at Northern Cheyenne will include several components:
1. Data Center – This will be the heart of the new building and will be designed from Tier-4 state-of-the-art-architecture standards, approximately five hundred square feet, which will provide the required space to house the proper equipment to serve the existing tribal population both now and in the future.
2. Operations – The central office will also maintain space for essential operations such as office spaces, bathrooms, conference room, breakroom, and mechanical and storage space. This will facilitate the hiring, training, and daily operations required to properly run the tribal telecom business.
3. Customer Service Area – The central office requires a foyer and reception to serve tribal residents. This area will facilitate face to face interactions as customers sign up for service, pay their bills, or inquire for information. This section of the building will be securely sealed off from the rest of the building to protect the employees and the data center.
4. The proposed central office will guarantee quality of service from a new fully redundant data center. The building will be reinforced, fire resistant, and fortified to protect against storms and wind common to the area, such as heavy snow, lightning, heavy rain, and high winds. The center is designed to be fireproof, waterproof, and shockproof. The proposed central office will make reasonable accommodations for those with recognized disabilities by complying with requirements specified in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
5. Presently, limited Internet and voice services exist at select locations on the reservation, but these services do not reach the vast number of unserved and underserved tribal members. Funds from this grant will be used to install a new Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) network, construct a middle-mile transport route, and build a new Central Office. Tribal leadership believes they act in the best interest of tribal members on the reservation and the proposed network infrastructure will enable the tribe to be self-sufficient.
6., Broadband is key to the future of economic development, health, public safety, public works, and education across the reservation. This new infrastructure will provide the capability for first responders to employ technologies and applications to address critical safety concerns, realize significant economic and time savings, and achieve work process efficiencies said a tribal spokesperson.
7. Broadband Connectivity will give residents in remote areas access to hybrid, virtual, distance, and online educational opportunities, both during pandemic periods and non-pandemic times. It will also allow them to participate more broadly in existing and emerging telehealth programs, bringing services to those that are not currently able to access them.
Native Nations do not have the same access to capital as municipalities like private Internet service providers. With the realization of this project, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe can flourish as a proud people “with rich traditions that define who they are, passing them down for generations to come all the while being enabled to compete with fewer constraints in a contemporary world,” Wetherelt explained.
That will include 1730 households, thirty-two businesses, and forty-five community anchors. This project will be completed within a three-year period and capable of reliably delivering triple play services (Internet, voice, and TV).
In an unusual move, the Tribal Council approved a Board of Directors for the project primarily comprised of non-Cheyenne experts: Godfrey Enjady- Chair of NCCC, General Manager Mescalero Apache Telecom: Kristan Johnson- Vice Chair/Treasurer NCCC, Operations Manager Tohono O’odham Utility Authority, Carroll Onsae- General Manager, Hopi Telecommunications, Inc.; Kim Dahle, Tribal Member, Administrative Professional Jeromena Beartusk- Secretary NCCC, Tribal Member, Administrative Professional, Keith Fox- Tribal Member, U.S. Military, I.T. personnel and Northern Cheyenne Tribal member Richard Sanders, I.T. in the private sector.
In Cheyenne style, all the speakers and dignitaries were ‘gifted’ by the Cheyenne Tribal Council prior to a community meal.
(Contact Clara Caufield at 2ndcheyennevoice@gmail.com)