What Digital Equity Means for Rural Alaska

Dleł Taaneets is the traditional name of my hometown of Rampart; it means “the hanging moose hide,” which the bluffs near our village mimic in color. My ancestors survived on these lands by following the lifeways of the season: spruce tips and birds in spring, salmon and plants in the summer, berries and moose in winter, trapping in the winter. Living off the lands of Alaska is unforgiving due to extreme weather, but my lineage endured and thrived by maintaining respect for one another, having gratitude to the animals and plants, and honoring the gorgeous lands that sustained them. Time moves differently in Alaska as we slowly assimilate into modern times. I don’t know when Rampart was first connected to the internet, but access wasn’t available for individual families like mine until I was an upperclassman in high school. To access the internet, my cousins and I would go to sit outside the Tribal office after hours during the midnight sun season, surrounded by mosquitos—a practice still done to this day. At the beginning of 2021, I left the oppressive service industry and promised myself to apply only to jobs that would begin my career in serving community. After months of pursuing jobs with no success, my eena (mother) forwarded me an email with an application to be the Broadband Specialist for the Native Movement and Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG).

[ Brittany Woods-Orrison is a Koyukon Dené woman from Dleł Taaneets, an Alaskan village along the Yukon River. She grew up on her ancestral homelands learning how to harvest traditional foods and being taught her culture. Brittany traveled around the Western United States learning about the lands, the waters, and the Indigenous stewards for a couple of years before returning home to Alaska to be the broadband specialist for Alaska Public Interest Research Group and Native Movement. Brittany now works on digital equity, cultural revitalization, food sovereignty, reconnecting to the land, and deep community building.]