Shinnecock get $8.2M grant to build new broadband network

The Shinnecock Indian Nation has received nearly $8.2 million in federal funding to build a high-speed internet network across its Southampton reservation and surrounding properties, tribal leaders said Friday.

The plan, to be rolled out between now and 2024, will provide high-speed links to more than 500 connection points on the reservation and homes of nearby tribal members and government buildings for a new fiber-optic broadband and wireless internet connections.

The tribe has been working on the complex plan to secure the funding for more than a year, and it represents the largest single competitive grant received by the tribe.

Of the 536 connection points included in the plan, 301 will be homes of underserved tribal members, while another 60 will be near-territory homes, government buildings and “anchor institutions,” including its monument billboard on Sunrise Highway. The infrastructure will help create or enhance programs such as distance learning and emergency communication, health care and commerce.

“It will greatly enhance the lives and the experiences of the Shinnecock Indian Nation,” said Randy King, vice chairman of the Shinnecock council of trustees.

King noted that in his decades in office the tribe gradually increased its technical capabilities, but the new grant will provide a quantum leap. “Now we’re in an age where to keep up in a global environment these tools and resources are essential for us to be equal with everybody else,” he said.

Funding is coming through a Tribal Broadband Connectivity program included in the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, with local backing from Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader.

“Reliable, high-speed internet access isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity required to create good-paying jobs, to communicate, to access health care, to shop, and to learn,” Schumer said in a statement.

In all, $224 million was awarded to 18 tribal entities across the nation as part of the program, and projects funded by the awards “will directly connect 21,468 unserved Native American households that previously had no connectivity to high-speed internet as well as businesses and anchor institutions,” the administration said.

Matt Ballard, a tribal technical consultant, said it will also bring a level of training and jobs that will help tribal members compete in a competitive workplace.

“There’s a dearth of programs and opportunities for kids that look like us,” he said. “Usually we get the jobs that are not the high-paying tech jobs. This is another way for us to get our kids in positions where they might do well and get high-paying jobs they can be proud of.”

Tribal council member and secretary Kelly Dennis and Tela Troge, tribal health and community services director, did much of the legwork to secure the grant, a process that took more than a year and provided a detailed road map for federal regulators to understand the scope of the tribe’s need and the plan to enact broadband as far away as the tribe’s Westwoods property in Hampton Bays. Both women are tribal Attorneys. 

Part of the plan includes the construction of two wireless communication towers that will provide high-speed service to not only tribal members not reached by the fiber-optic line, but will aid service to the surrounding community. Many areas of the East End have large gaps in internet and cell service, Troge said.

“Our plan includes two cell towers to dramatically improve cell connectivity to our members and also the surrounding community, to benefit the region, not just the Shinnecock Nation,” Troge said.

Dennis said the new telecom infrastructure will provide a huge boost to connectivity for the tribe’s annual pow wow, at which many tribal vendors use links to the internet for payment and other commerce connections.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.