- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Location: Pablo, Montana
Award Amount: $41,572,831.55
Roughly a quarter of the homes on the Flathead Reservation in Pablo, Montana don’t have internet connections, per U.S. Census data.
For the other three-quarters — roughly 76% — that do have internet connectivity, there are no guarantees of sufficient bandwidth to handle Zoom calls, distance learning, telehealth, and telework demands leveraged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That makes the $41.5 million award from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration a “life changer for our reservation community,” especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, according to Confederated Salish and Kootenai Chairman Tom McDonald.
“What did the pandemic demonstrate to us?” McDonald asked the audience during a press conference regarding the award. “It demonstrated how much we’re not provided equal access to health care, technology, workplace environments, and all things that are critically important and are the norm outside of our reservation.”
In total, the money will help lay 300 miles of fiber optic cable, targeting over 900 unserved homes and 55 anchor institutions and community fixtures, such as schools, libraries, and clinics. In addition, the tribes will distribute connectivity devices to unserved homes.
During the same press conference, the tribe’s Infrastructure Administrator Chuck Reese predicted the project would be on a two-year timeline. As the fiber buildout proceeds, more and more locations will be brought online through a combination of direct fiber and fixed wireless connections.
“This is generational change,” McDonald said. “It’s huge. It’s such an advancement. This puts us on equal footing with the future.”
