- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will host a four-day Tribal Broadband Boot Camp Aug. 18-21 at Bay Mills Community College Technology Center on the tribe's Marquette campus.
The training program, organized by broadband advocacy group Waskawiwin, will bring together tribal technology staff, community leaders and advocates for hands-on instruction in network design, deployment and management. The event marks the first boot camp held in the Great Lakes region and is designed primarily for members of the 36 federally recognized tribes across Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Participants will receive support for travel costs, including rooms and meals. Sessions will be led by Waskawiwin co-founders Matthew Rantanen and Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
“Our goal is to connect people working in Indian Country on Internet access to build skills and share knowledge on how to make sure everyone is well connected,” Mitchell told Tribal Business News. “This issue is not as complicated as it first feels and tribes have real options to achieve digital sovereignty.”
The boot camp series began in spring 2021 following conversations at the Internet Society's Indigenous Connectivity Summit in 2019. Eight boot camps have trained more than 250 participants from more than 50 tribes and First Nations across the United States and Canada.
Each workshop provides training in fiber infrastructure layout, network management and resource identification. Participants gain understanding of federal policy impacts, how internet service providers can generate tribal revenue, and methods to expand household connectivity.
Previous participants have secured roles as network engineers, project managers and grant coordinators within tribal governments. The program has created an informal peer support network through a private online forum where graduates share deployment solutions and funding opportunities.
The training comes as tribes consider how to use billions in federal funding that flowed to Indian Country connectivity during the Biden administration. Previous Tribal Business News reporting identified nearly $3 billion in direct grant funding through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, alongside indirect funding from other federal and state programs.
The funding targets a significant connectivity gap: only around half of Indian Country meets Federal Communications Commission service standards of 25 megabit download speeds and 3 megabit upload speeds.
Boot camps help tribal technologists maximize current funding levels to create optimal results, Rantanen said. Attendees learn to build and manage their own networks, reducing reliance on outside contractors and vendors while preserving tribal data sovereignty.
“There really has never been a more important moment in history where it's apparent tribes need to manage their own digital sovereignty,” Rantanen said.
Registration closes July 31. Interested tribal staff and leaders can apply at tribalbroadbandbootcamp.org.
