US Department of the Interior Awarding $2.7 Million in Tribal Broadband Grants

The Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development awards $2.7 million in National Tribal Broadband Grants to 18 Tribes and Tribal organizations. The grants, ranging in value from $120,000 to $175,000, will provide funding for two years to perform feasibility studies for the installation or expansion of high-speed internet. The feasibility study may be used to assess the current broadband services, if any, that are available to an applicant's community; an engineering assessment of new or expanded broadband services; an estimate of the cost of building or expanding a broadband network; a determination of the transmission media that will be employed; identification of potential funding or financing for the network; and consideration of financial and practical risks associated with developing a broadband network. The grantees are as follows:

• Pala Band of Mission Indians, CA;
• Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians of California, CA;
• Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, LA;
• The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, OK;
• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, AL;
• Pueblo of Laguna, NM;
• Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, AK;
• Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, CA;
• Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana, MT;
• Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, MI;
• Rosebud Economic Development Corporation, SD;
• Nenana Native Association, AK;
• Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, SD;
• Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, CA;
• Bay Mills Indian Community, MI;
• Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, KS;
• Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, WA;
• Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, KS.