And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 08:15:06 -0800 From: Tom Schlosser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: Morisset Schlosser Ayer & Jozwiak, 801 2nd Ave., Ste. 1115, Seattle, WA 98104, 206 386 5200, (206 386 7322 fax) To: Triballaw mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Testimony to FCC decries reservation telephone service Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------9DAA6755A650CDAEAA1943D0" http://www.azcentral.com:80/sev/news/0324phones.shtml Concerns over Indians' lack of phones gets FCC's ear ByBetty Beard The Arizona Republic March 24, 1999 While many Americans are getting second and third phone lines for computers and chatty teens, half the American Indians living on reservations are still waiting for their first. "There are Third World nations that have surpassed our own Native Americans," said businessman Carl Artman, a member of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, in testimony Tuesday in front of the Federal Communications Commission. Three of the five commissioners, including Chairman William Kennard, were visiting the reservation Tuesday to examine why so few Indians have phones. About 95 percent of Americans have telephones, making the U.S. phone system "the envy of the world," Kennard said. But among the rural poor, about 75 percent have phones at home. And on reservations, it's less, sometimes much less. Only about a fourth of reservation Navajos have phones, and only about a third of Gila River residents have phones. For the most part, American Indians are just hitchhikers on the Information Superhighway. Lack of phones means reservation Indians are unable to call doctors, their local police, bosses, children's teachers or take part in the rapid telecommunication revolution, said representatives from a number of tribes in five hours of testimony. It's possible today for remote reservation Indians to attend classes by teleconferences or even for doctors in Phoenix to look down someone's throat in Ganado, providing they have modern phone systems. Young Indians can't become productive citizens without phones, said Ivan Makil, chairman of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Community east of Scottsdale. "A basic telephone is not enough," he said. "They must have access to the Internet." And without a modern telephone system that includes digital switches and fiber optic lines, Native American communities can't attract businesses needed to lift them out of poverty, Makil said. "It's hampered our ability to grow economically. . . . Business does not want to locate where there's not a basic infrastructure," Makil said. More economic development, he said, would stabilize tribal governments. "When something benefits Indian country, it usually benefits surrounding communities as well," Makil added. Gov. Mary Thomas of the Gila River Indian Community said, "We want to be a part of mainstream America and also be a partner with the surrounding communities in what America is all about." The reasons so few Indians have telephones are many. Federal subsidies or grants have been difficult to obtain. Residents can't afford the monthly rates. Phone companies don't find it economical to run phone lines to isolated residents. Theft and vandalism can be high at remote sites, according to Tuesday's testimony. Nora Helton, chairwoman of the Fort Mojave Tribe, said getting phone rights of way on her reservation is complicated because it sprawls into Arizona, California and Nevada. Its land in Arizona also is a checkerboard pattern. A shortage of phones is not the only communication problem on reservations. Indians also asked the commission for more radio frequencies for their police and fire departments. Thomas said the Gila River Community only has two frequencies that sometimes become overloaded when other tribes use them. But although Indians told how they struggle just to get traditional phone and radio systems, other speakers said they are in a good position to bypass those systems and "leapfrog" to wireless systems, such as cellular phones or phones that bounce signals off satellites. William Purnell, president of American Mobile Satellite Corp. in Reston, Va., said such systems don't require the huge upfront costs, don't mess up the environment and sacred Indian sites, and are expandable. "From my standpoint, tribal land is not a high-cost service area. It's just a service area," Purnell said. But he conceded that subsidies are needed to reduce the monthly rates so Indians can afford the telephones. Helton said, "Technology is not the problem. It's the cost of providing the service that is the problem." After the hearing, the second one the FCC held on the subject, Kennard said he realized the commission needs to change the way it allocates Universal Service funds, which subsidize telephone companies when they build systems in remote areas. Despite the obstacles, a number of Indian communities have formed their own telephone companies and have installed or plan to install digital switches, fiber optic cables and other features. One of these is the San Carlos Indian Reservation where residents have been waiting more than 20 years for phones. Its new San Carlos Apache Telecommunications Utility Inc. is installing phone lines that will be finished in mid-June. San Carlos Apaches at Bylas are excitedly getting their first phone numbers, posting them on refrigerators and starting address books already, even though their phones won't be installed until next month, said Vernon James, company president. They're saying to each other, "Call me in May," he said. "It's just exciting, especially for the adolescents who are going to tie up the system." *** Betty Beard can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] via e-mail or at 1-602-444-7982. Copyright 1999, Arizona Central &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
