Internet goes dark at Navajo reservation
Satellite provider OnSat recently shut off internet service to the Navajo nation, leaving the entire reservation without access vital to education, government, and other services. OnSat claims it did so because the federal government failed to pay about $2 million it owed, which OnSat in turn pays to a subcontractor for satellite time. Snip:
The Universal Service Administration Co., which administers the E-rate program, is withholding the funding because of a tribal audit that showed OnSat may have double-billed the tribe. The audit also raised questions about how the tribe requested bids for the Internet contract.Link to Forbes story. Related items: AP, Gallup Independent, Valleywag.Tribal officials say it could be a couple of weeks before service is restored to chapter houses across the 27,000 square-mile reservation. They've been meeting with other Internet service providers to explore their options. Utah-based OnSat, meanwhile, has offered to reconnect the affected chapter houses, if they pay out of their own pockets.
Image: "Navajo Girl," by Wolfgang Staudt
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Lucky bastards.
Cutting off internet access to an entire NATION because they happen to have the misfortune of living in a country that forces them to stay in designated (albeit spacious) ghettos in order to retain the right to self-determination?
Nice one.
OnSat did not cut off internet access "because they happen to have the misfortune of living in a country that forces them to stay in designated ghettos in order to retain the right to self-determination".
OnSat cut off internet access because someone didn't pay the bill. How much self-determination does the Navajo nation really have if they rely on Uncle Sam to pay their internet bill?
They should have a contingency plan with at least two internet providers. If one goes down, the other is available. When they're both up, then traffic is load-balanced between the two providers.
I wonder how much internet $2m USD buys, anyway.
(All jokes about the dropping value of the currency are irrelevant, but still might be funny.)
Re: #2 , they are not forced to stay there, the land is theirs to do what they want with. Near where I live there are three separate tribes with their own land. Two of the three do indeed resemble a rural ghetto (discarded mobile homes, abandoned cars, etc.). But one of the tribe's (Jamestown S'Klallam) has some very nice facilities and flies in the face of the stereotype. People are free to live as they please, anybody who wants to litter their property with cars and mobile homes can do that, and I am not judging. But to say they are being forced to live that way is a falsehood. Most tribes use casinos/fireworks/alcohol/cigarettes to get revenue, and good for them, exercising their privileges of living outside many state laws.
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Federal money given to anybody to pay their phone/Internet bill is a waste. Imagine the concept of having to make your own way in life.
imagine not having your land stolen
I bet the US never forgets to pay the Blackwater bill.
yes i'm sure it is just a tragic coincidence that Native Americans have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, poverty/unemployment rates approaching 80-100% on many reservations, teenage suicide rates 1.5-2 times the national average, infant mortality rates 3x higher than the national average, disproportionately high incarceration rates, etc. Musta just all chosen to live that way.
Amazing what systematic genocide will do.
I bet the US never forgets to pay the Blackwater bill.
<hansolo>
That's 'cause Indians don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Mercenaries are known to do that.
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Why is the US paying for their internet?
I don't get it.
so they don't scalp the settlers
I LOL'd when I read the headline. It gave me a mental picture of Indians sitting in teepees using Blackberries and iPhones.
Then I felt bad for laughing.
Calling Billy jack ! He'd kick some ass over this!
The US is paying for the tribe's internet for the same reason it paid $200 billion for the backbone-internet connection many Americans are using: basic communication has become an expected human right.
The satellite service was a temporary stop-gap while lines were installed for a real internet/phone line connection, which won't be completed for 2-3 years.
From what I've heard/read, the tribes grant money was denied because they were keeping sloppy paperwork, and possibly violated the rules for contract bidding, causing our government to pay more than was expected. Unfortunately, until the tribe's book-keepers get their act together the whole tribe will suffer.
Luckily [IIRC] half of the tribe houses in the area were running their internet off of their own funds, not the federal grant money, and are still active.
#10: Blood Struggle by Charles Wilkinson does a good job of outlining the troubles reservations have had with the middle ground between reliance on federal funding and self-determination in a very positive way, if you're interested in reading more about this.
#12: Hooghans (hogans) are the traditional dwellings of Navajo people.
Actually cell phone users were paying for it. e-rate was a charge on your cell phone bill to pay for internet access to poor schools, etc. The US Government collects and disburses. And so another way to mess with a native american tribe.
And if any of you idiots think that we don't owe this and more to them has no clue about life and our history. With out getting into blame in the clash of cultures that occurred, one thing is for certain. We took their lands, we took their wealth and we took their way of life from them. We violated treaties time and time again, we slaughtered them many times, we killed the buffalo to kill them. Is there something good we did for these people ever?
@#16:
The minute that you called others "you idiots" - you became the only idiot in the conversation.
And the rest of your "argument" is total hogwash.
Every sentence.
And the rest of your "argument" is total hogwash.
That's not a very cogent argument on your part. Care to expand?
Just have to say that photo is breath-taking!
That's not a very cogent argument on your part. Care to expand?
Santa's Knee meant that we bought their motorcycle, the Indian. We watch their baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. And we chew Redskin Tobacco (tm).
I used to be a wasp. I used to think USA as the best country with da' kindest government in the world, heirs of Athens philosophy.
I even volunteered to serve in Nam for the country I loved. Needles to say, that didn't go very well.
I then realized I was not white. My skin was a different color. My thoughts and needs did not count to Uncle Sam and his money grabbing hordes. All the good people in America did not count either, regardless of their color. Only the few.
I am much happier now, not living a dream I can't have. I still love my country, but in a lost kinda way.
There are many things that are not right in this world, such as the raw deal American Indians have begotten. However, it is not for you and me to judge, only to hope that someone will get it all right somehow in the end.
Some day the tom-tom's will resonate through the net with the force of a thousand Jedi's, a thousand million voices wailing to be eared, a zillion thoughts seeking a fair shake.
And you still wonder why the access was cut off?
Idiot is a very cogent term for ignorant people who indulge in stereotyping Native people. Shame on them!
My AZ school district that is located in the Navajo Nation got dinged by e-rate for failing to submit a basic form that could have been done in minutes. It was unfortunate, but an honest omission, and e-rate cut us off. We immediately fulfilled the deficit, and now have been waiting for over 1.5 years for them to reinstate us. Meanwhile, we live with sub-dialup level of service that is held together with bailing wire and duct tape. When you live in a state whose public schools are 49th in student spending, it means thousands of students suffer as a result. But that doesn't mean shit to e-rate.
E-rate sucks, and maybe someone should investigate them instead of blaming us for the mess. This is definitely four-letter -level frustration.
"OnSat claims it did so because the federal government failed to pay about $2 million it owed, which OnSat in turn pays to a subcontractor for satellite time. "
A subcontractor?! wtf.
Capitalism and america are going to go down the drain because capitalists expect the next guy to do all the work
and EVERYONe know america is about buying and selling businesses... huh....
"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." - Karl Marx
If I were, say, China, I'd be a bit worried about the US government's attitude toward paying its bills here.
Re #6 "imagine not having your land stolen": I was not speaking of this case specifically, but in general. The money is not there just for natives, and I oppose it being collected as a federal tax to be redistributed anyone. Now if say, Verizon, wants to increase my rates so they can expand their network, fine. I can either accept a rate increase or look to another provider.
Utah-based OnSat should eat shit and die.
DJordan 12: Ever hear "pain is weakness leaving the body"? That bad feeling you got for laughing, that was you becoming a better person.
Like Bonnie, I'm blown away by the photo. If I lived in country like that, I don't know that I'd ever even think about the internet. I guess you get used to it when you're born and raised there, but damn...looks like she could see three or four separate rainstorms while she's sitting in the sunshine.
Why is the US paying for their internet?
I don't get it.
In no particular order
Could it be because we stole their land, stole their coal, stole their water, killed their sheep, sterilized their women, and marched them off to death camps?
#28 HOLY FUCKING SHIT! When did this happen? You'd think it'd be all over the news by now. Even Boing Boing would be covering that story!!!
Wait a second...
Santa's Knee should be turned over our knee and spanked for worthless comments. Guess he just likes to say something even when he has nothing to say.
Well, to be fair, we're still sterilizing their women... and the mentally retarded... and black women...
...and people wonder why minorities dislike hospitals.
#12: Teepees? Seriously? You have got to be kidding me.
#22: I don't work in a school, but I've totally been dinged for small omissions before, and you have my sympathies. I hope it all gets worked out soon with the extra media coverage (yeah, right).