USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) awarded the Oglala Sioux Tribe $500,000.00 for a Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA)

The Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) presents this application – The Oglala Digital Sovereignty and Equity Project – for round 2 of the USDA’s Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA) program to support efforts by OST to analyze the main factors affecting Tribal sovereignty, network sustainability, broadband service affordability, and current deployment-based broadband funding related to current and future services on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. OST, as stated below, established Oglala Lakota Telecommunications, LLC to further its goals for ensuring all people on the Reservation have access to quality, affordable broadband service.

The focus of the project will be on the sovereignty of the Tribe over broadband services provided on the Reservation, and to ensure such services – both current and future – adhere to the principles of Tribal sovereignty and are provided in ways that ensure service equity and affordability. The project will deliver the components necessary for OST to ensure all of its members have access to quality, affordable broadband service that is based on principles of Tribal sovereignty, consent, digital inclusion, and equity.

Specific projects include those addressing financial forecasting, broadband mapping, legal and regulatory issues, engineering planning and design, and project management. Together, these projects will be developed into a long-term sustainable broadband plan for the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Pine Ridge Reservation

The Pine Ridge Reservation in located in in the southwest corner of South Dakota, encompasses nearly 3,500 square miles of land areas, and is considered one of the largest Reservations in the United States. The Reservation has historically been one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the United States, with high unemployment rates and high levels of poverty.

Historically, the OST has had little or no influence over the services provided on the Reservation, how the networks providing those services were deployed, and how services are provisioned. While there are terrestrial internet service providers serving parts of the Reservation, there are large pockets where reliable service at acceptable speeds is not available. OST will develop a plan to better enforce sovereignty over broadband services and to ensure those services are provided in an equitable and culturally sensitive manner.