About six years or so I assisted several members of the Tuscarawas tribe on their reservation outside of Niagara Falls, New York in getting just basic dial up speeds via their tethered cell phones. (I was considered a genius for that basic work around) The council elders banned phone lines on the reservation (but power lines were okay???) so it could only be obtained via cell service. I was the unofficial "Computer Guy" for the tribe on that particular reservation. Very nice people.
The only negative I saw was that there was one small group of people in the tribe that controlled the money and they also had say over the land which the individual tribe members did not own. The members that I dealt with expressed to me that they could be uprooted at any time if they pissed off the wrong big shot elder. Everything is politics and the reservations are no exception and have taken it to even greater heights. If you have any infrastructure that you need to put in, be ready to grease palms and involve whoever is in control of the cigarette and gasoline sales. You also need to pay attention to your contract wording because it may not apply on the reservation. Be mindful of who even signs. They may not have the correct authority in their power structure and would be worthless if it came to enforcement. Sad but true. I moved away but still get phone calls from a few tribal members. Bob- What-da-hey. From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Rick Harnish Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 3:29 PM To: memb...@wispa.org; 'WISPA General List'; motor...@afmug.com Cc: 'A Goldman' Subject: [WISPA] Broadband work with Indian Reservation I will be attending a Strategy Meeting in New York later this month which is hosted by NABA (Native American Broadband Association and Intersections International). Alex Goldman will be covering these meetings as well. Between now and then, I would like to hear from WISPs across the country that may have worked with Indian tribes in the past or are presently working with them. Part of Alex's articles will focus on how private ISPs are successfully working with the Indian Nation, however I would also like to hear the downside of anyone's experiences. NABA has reached out to WISPA to develop alliances and collaboration, both on the lobbying front and the development of public/private partnerships so that many of the grants awarded to the Indian tribes will have a good local ISP partner to assist in the implementation of the projects. If your ISP business is near a reservation, I would like to hear from you in the next week. Respectfully, Rick Harnish Executive Director WISPA 260-307-4000 cell 866-317-2851 WISPA Office Skype: rick.harnish. rharn...@wispa.org
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