Expanded internet access is coming to the Osage Nation.
Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and other members of Osage leadership were joined in Pawhuska Monday by senior advisers to President Biden. They ceremonially broke ground on new broadband internet lines and WiFi towers.
The tribal nation received more than $40 million in grant money from the federal government to bring broadband connection to residents.
"It’s absolutely an equity issue, it’s a civil rights issue," said Current White House senior adviser and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. "You look at the history of exclusion in this country and tribal communities have all too frequently been on the short end of that."
Talee Redcorn, who works for the tribal nation, said the lack of broadband has affected business in the area. People don't want to set up shop in an area with slow speeds.
"It is a big factor," Redcorn said.
Michael Bristow, vice chair of the Osage Nation Health Authority (ONHA), said slow speeds were especially felt during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Osage citizens couldn’t get telemedicine.
"Healthcare software carries with it a requirement of security," Bristow said. "Everything has to be encrypted, and that, of course, makes the files even larger, which broadband internet is much more capable of carrying than the current system that we have."
The federal investment will help install 200 miles of fiber-optic cables as well as build 16 fixed WiFi towers. According to a press release, the project will connect 3,000 households in the tribal nation.
