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Minnesota Native News is a weekly radio segment covering ideas and events relevant to Minnesota’s Native American communities. Made possible by the Minnesota Art's and Cultural Heritage fund
[Music: Minnesota Native News Theme]
ANCHOR: This is Minnesota Native News. I'm Marie Rock. This week, a nationwide program to increase broadband internet access for Tribal Nations visits the Midwest. Emma Needham has the story.
[sound element: Dial Up Internet]
Matthew Rantanen: If you wanna participate as a citizen of the United States, in this day and age, if you don't have access to broadband, you are not going to be able to do that.
Emma Needham: That's Matthew Rantanen, co-founder of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, a nationwide, grassroots training effort to help tribal nations connect and build broadband internet access.
[sound element: Modem sounds]
Needham: According to the US Government Accountability Office, in 2020, 18% of people living on tribal lands couldn't access broadband service, compared to 4% of people in non-tribal areas. Rantanen says Tribal Nations are not at fault for not having access.
Rantanen: We identified 8,000 missing miles between a meaningful location on a reservation and the nearest fiber network that could backhaul their community's data and requests to the internet, to the rest of the world.
Needham: Think of it like roadways: "Backhaul" is the connection between a local network and the larger internet highway. Without it, communities can only access neighborhood streets for local connections, but there is no highway to get their data out to the rest of the world.
[sound element: Shovel digging]
Needham: Solving this connection problem means digging thousands of miles of trenches for broadband fiber cables. But the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp's work also involves troubleshooting and developing other creative solutions for tribal nations.
Rantanen: Geography is probably the toughest piece of the puzzle. You know, reservations were often set up in places where people did not want to be.
Needham: And changing conditions, like natural disasters and coaster flooding create even more complex challenges for tribal nations trying to get online.
Rantanen: And so some of those communities are having to move. Some of those communities are adapting more mobile and/or temporary solutions for their internet, because they don't have a stable solution for their internet platform.
Needham: Minnesota tribal communities are joining the bootcamp next week.
Rantanen: So far, we have the Fond du Lac tribe registered, and then we also have Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe registered. And any tribe is able to come to any bootcamp.
Needham: All Midwest tribal nations are invited to attend the next Tribal Nation Broadband Bootcamp at the Sault Saint Marie Chippewa Tribe in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, starting on August 18th. Another session is scheduled for later this year in Southern California on November 3rd.
Rantanen: We certainly want the cross pollinate, as well, because some of the best solutions comes from those people getting together and talking about their specific situations.
[sound element: Modem Sounds fading out]
Needham: More information and registration forms are available at tribalbroadbandbootcamp.org. For Minnesota Native News, I'm Emma Needham
ANCHOR (Marie Rock): A new survey from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe shows that Minnesotans' overwhelming agree that clean water must be protected, but that most don't know about a proposed nickel mine. CJ Younger has more.
[sound element: Water lapping on a shoreline]
CJ Younger: In July, the Mille Lacs Band's initiative Water Over Nickel polled over 1,000 Minnesotans across all demographics on their connection to clean water.
Kelly Applegate: It really showed that we can all agree on the need to protect clean water, now and into the future.
Younger: Kelly Applegate is the Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mille Lacs Band.
Applegate: Water was seen as our state's legacy. And 95% of Minnesotans believe we must protect it for the future generations.
Younger: That seems promising, but the survey also revealed that only 16% of Minnesotans polled knew about a proposed nickel mine's threats to watersheds of the metro area and the Mississippi River.
[sound element: Construction vehicles]
Applegate: Nickel sulfide mining globally has a terrible track record—it's always led to environmental degradation.
Younger: The Talon Metals proposed site is just over a mile from a Mille Lacs community at Sandy Lake, and about 10 miles east of McGregor, Minnesota.
Applegate: The community members there rely upon the water resources there and have well water. And the threats of this type of mining are severe.
Younger: Mille Lacs Band leaders are in talks with Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources and the mining company, Talon Metals Corps, to ensure transparency and understand the impact on water resources. The project's public comment period is expected to open in 2026.
[sound element: Water]
Younger: Visit water-over-nickel-dot-com to learn more and see the full results of the study. You can also find Water Over Nickel at the State Fair in the DNR Building later this month. For Minnesota Native News, I'm CJ Younger.
[Music: Minnesota Native News Theme]
ROCK (Funder Credit): Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possibly by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.