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Native American Wireless ISP Launched
babynerd writes "On Tuesday June 1st the Coeur dAlene tribe unveiled the Turbocharged Broadband Geek Project. The scheme, organized by project head Valerie Fast Horse and funded by a $2.8 million dollar grant from the USDA Rural Utilities Service and a 15% in kind match from the tribe itself, will help build a community technology center (CTC) with 40 computers, and a wireless broadband ISP that will provide high-speed wireless access to anyone living on and near the reservation at a price comparable to that of any other DSL or Cable Internet providers - there's currently no broadband Internet access of any kind available."
If there's ever a sequel to Smoke Signals:
Seriously - great movie, set on the Coeur d'Alene reservation in present day (well, present day six years ago). You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll become a part of you.
Cool funny t-shirts for geeks, gamers and everyone else
Oh, gee, you know, trivial things like roads and schools, stuff the Gov't doesn't really fund.
That seems like enough for a *heck* of a buildout and, what? 10 years of expenses? How can I get a piece? :)
Linux IT Consulting and Domino Development in Michigan
Why doesn't their own tribe fund this effort?
Because the tribe, as are most casino operators, are good business men. They know a good investment when they see one and they know how to take advantage of an opportunity to make more money.
Looking at it from a business perspective, it isn't very attractive at all. However, looking at it from the perspective of using someone else's money to provide yourselve's with services is quite attractive. Hence, the casino avoids such investments and the tribe benefits. It's sort of the same way that government grants support crappy research projects that the private sector wouldn't touch.
Have you ever driven through a Native American reservation? If we're compensating them, where did we go wrong? Seems like we sent some people into the top 5% tax bracket and left the rest of the tribes in the lowest levels of poverty. Not as nasty as killing their ancestors and forcing them into the worst parts of the country, but it's still pretty bad.
-Aaron
My name is Aaron Landry, and I approve this message.
All handouts tend to increase laziness. This is the reason why the economies of continental Europe severely lag behind that of the US.
Without incentive to work, people work less. Simple economics there.
Given that they're living under a Soviet-style planned economy, they aren't free to shape their own lives.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
Maybe the idea here is that by giving them a handout with potentially limitless educational value, we increase the odds that at least a few more of them will be motivated and have the resources to get out there and make it on their own.
I suppose you think fertilizer encourages laziness in plants...
Who's We?, and why isn't "They" part of "We". I was strangely under the impression that so called "native americans" were citizens of this country and have the right to vote.
I also don't recall killing anyones ancestors, and I don't know anyone who did. This "we" and "they" crap is missleading. There's no we, and there's no they.
AccountKiller
and...
If the idea was to give them a better quality of life, maybe we should offer them education instead.
First of all, what makes you think their plan is to use WiFi to surf porn? Is that your primary Internet use other than trolling on Slashdot? In many rural areas (you must be a city dweller), educational opportunities are in fact taken advantage of over the Internet.
As to your other comments, of course they are pure bullshit, too. You seem bitter. Get turned down for the party school of you choice and have to go to Community College instead?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Wow, I didn't realize that we had posters that were around in the 1800's. They should really be ashamed of themselves.
The natives got screwed royally. No one denies that. This does not mean that white people are evil for the rest of time. Funny how people decry racism until it fits their needs...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
The parent probably is flamebait, but funny none the less. Given the lack of humor show here in the modding, I should probably keep my mouth shut about the possibility of out-sourcing call centers to them (ducks...)
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
WTF? Why would any self respecting geek use the overly abused term "Turbocharged" to describe their project? This is something thats always gotten under my skin... whenever people claim something other than a combustion engine is "turbocharged", I just shake my head. But I let it go because the common man/woman just wouldn't get it anyways. But a geek project? Aren't we supposed to be relatively smart around here? Come on! You don't see "overclocked ovens" in stores, why the hell do we use "turbocharged" in the same nonsensical manner? I may not be an expert, but from what I know, there is nothing in WiFi or even networking that involves turbine powered compression. Why does everyone love this misnomer? Doesn't it sound stupid to anyone else? Or is it just me?
[/rant]
This isn't about YOUR white man's guilt and paying for your ancestors mistakes, it's about the US GOVERNMENT being held accountable for broken treaties.
Think of our government as an organization like a corporation. If that corporation signs treaties and breaks them, then that corporation is legally responsible and liable.
It doesn't matter if you were around or not. Our government doesn't stop being obligated to its treaties just because you came into this world.
If you don't like it, then I can recommend emmigrating to another country that didn't indebt itself to the locals.
YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE IN ALL OF THIS. PAY THE DEBT YOUR GOVERNMENT OBLIGATED YOU TO PAY, OR FIND ANOTHER COUNTRY.
My biggest complaint about this is that the non-natives are funding this venture through the USDA Rural Utilities Service... Why doesn't their own tribe fund this effort?
Good point. Let's just give 'em back their land and call it even.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
I am shocked to read the number of angry responses to this story. I always thought that technology was neutral in the racial game, and was quite surprised at the number of angry, racial geeks out there. I guess I should be glad that your remarks are based on ignorance rather than truth or honesty. The good news: you angry guys are not the majority.
Then again, why should I pay for internet access for native americans? I can understand tax money going to support them, make their land livable and so on since the US government took it all away to begin with, but it's not like we robbed them of their broadband internet access...
I personally think that native americans' internet access should not take priority over anyone else's. There's plenty of white people out there who can't get reliable telephone service. Let's worry about that before we get all concerned about broadband internet.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If big evil corporation employees slave labor to make your shoes, you are benefiting from that crime. If your immigrant father worked as a piss boy for a tycoon whose father got rich building railroads accross the nation that forced native americans off the railroads right of way, you have benefited from that act. If you eat the bread that is produced from the huge American corn and wheat fields you are benefiting from the abuse the native americans suffered. If your Chinese father wasn't slaughtered at the fans of savage Japanese soldiers during World War II its very likely you benefited by the existance of the United States of America, which had the industrial power it did because of the callous way it forced the native peoples of the land it occupied out of its way.
I'm not suggesting that we return North American to the Native Americans and go home, just pointing out that everybody who is enjoying the freedoms and rights of the United States or has been aided by this nation has benefited by the oppression of the native american people. Unless you have had all your belongs that you couldn't carry 500 miles stolen and forced to live on the least desirable chunk of property the theives could find, you aren't THEY.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.