State-of-the-art broadband connectivity is coming to the Osage, where tribal leaders and community members gathered for a Town Hall meeting with Alan Davidson of the National Telecommunications Information Administration, in a discussion on what the $40.6 million project will mean for the Osage Nation and its people.
The project will have 16 fixed WiFi towers, about 200 miles of fiber optic cabling, and will lessen substandard internet availability, expand constituent services, strengthen sovereignty, improve Osage’s quality of life, and could even bring Osage people home. The project broke ground in Pawhuska on Monday, March 4.
Dr. James Trumbly of Wahzhazhe Connect was part of a nine-person panel and reflected on the preponderance of Osage families who left during the Reign of Terror, as well as at other junctures, who should now have the incentive to return home.
“I think a lot of people moved to California and Colorado and Arizona and New Mexico, and all over the country—and we’ve had difficulty bringing them back. One of the reasons is because we need connectivity,” said Dr. Trumbly.
In an audience of about 30 attendees, Osages from Tulsa, across the Osage reservation, and elsewhere all listened to Trumbly and fellow panel members attentively.
Mary Wildcat, director of the ON Education Department, called the broadband a game changer. “This is going to be a really good thing for our schools and our students,” she said and noted that increased connectivity will bring confidence to the Nation’s expanding programmatic offerings for youth. “We’ll be able to feel confident with providing more to our students and our local schools and even just our school districts all across Osage County.”
Talee Redcorn, chairman of the Pawhuska Indian Camp Village Board, commented on the critical importance of equity for children living on tribal trust land, where “resources are very, very wanting,” and Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear reflected that contemporary cities are built around Internet connectivity.
Standing Bear envisioned a future in which he could walk into a room and see a historical Osage figure such as Chief Bacon Rind and be able to converse with him and receive Wahzhazhe ie corrections – in a holographic environment. “We don’t have the kind of money [for that yet, but] we have dedicated ourselves to stopping our language loss … and we’re very strong with our culture. … You can see with ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Osage language being talked … so we’re ready to spread this growth through all our people, and that’s only possible with internet.”
Davidson was inspired by the chief’s vision of the future. “That is what we’re here to make real,” he said.
Additional applications the panel discussed included fewer work stoppages for the ON Language Department, and real-time oil and gas monitoring to better manage the oil and gas moving through the Nation.
Additionally, Michael Bristow, vice chairman for the Si-Si A-Pe-Txa health board, emphasized the newfound abilities the Wahzhazhe Health Clinic will have in providing care to patients, who currently communicate almost exclusively through landline phones, due to limited cell and Internet service throughout the Osage.
“Osage County is considered 98 percent rural, we are also considered a technology desert,” said Bristow. “A lot of the patients don’t have cell service. They come to the clinic, and their records are put into a digital format. … Broadband, high-speed internet is vital for that,” he said and added that home health visits and recovery services will both improve because of the incoming connectivity.
Osage elders on the panel reflected on the changes they have seen over their lifetimes and applauded this growth for the Nation, and the impacts for subsequent generations.
Osages will have strong support from the NTIA, said Davidson, while the tribe is navigating changes in connectivity infrastructure.
Initial installation projects are now beginning in Pawhuska and will move west, toward Ponca City. Broadband USA, which manages the NTIA grant program, can help Osage departments with questions and adaptation as the broadband installation continues. Margaret Gutierrez of Broadband USA is at mgutierrez@ntia.gov, and available by phone at (202) 235-5467.
