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The Nation's Largest Indian Reservation Will Finally Have Widespread Internet Access

Thirteen years after President Clinton announced he'd bring the Navajo Nation online, it's finally happening.
Photo via Flickr

When Bill Clinton was serving out his last year as president, he visited the small community of Shiprock, part of the sprawling Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the US. He was inspired by a young Navajo girl he met who had won an Apple laptop but had no way to connect to the internet, and so announced a program to bring the remote nation into the digital age.

Thirteen years later, the plan is finally entering its last stage, with the opening of an $8 million commercial data center that will spread high-speed internet access to 70 percent of the territory. Fittingly, the ribbon cutting ceremony was held in the small Shiprock town.

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Most Navajo residents live in remote areas throughout the 27,425 square miles of desert (about the size of West Virginia), which spans parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Up until recently, many didn't have phone service, let alone wi-fi. As early as last year, less than 10 percent of homes had any internet access.

The new data center—the first of many, Navajo leaders say—will help the reservation's broadband network—itself only two years old—reach into remote pockets of the region it couldn't reach before. The center consolidates existing server rooms and telecom facilities, to boost availability and cut back costs. If all goes according to plan, it will help power broadband service to 30,000 homes, and thousands of businesses and community groups as soon as this fall.

Planned coverage under the Broadband Initiative, via Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

Some Navajo residents have been skeptical of the decision to wire the reservation, arguing that new technology shouldn't be a priority when more than 40 percent of the nation is unemployed and living below the poverty line, according to the local Daily Times. But others hope widespread internet access will help Navajo residents get high-tech jobs and training, lower the unemployment rate, keep young people from leaving the reservation to look for work, and provide better education.

In other words, it's an effort to bridge the digital divide. In the original outline for the Digital Navajo Nation project, the leaders wrote, "The Navajo Nation needs to plan very efficiently to catch up as rapidly as possible, because technology advances will continue  to increase in a linear fashion as we strive to shorten the gap." They added, however, that "although we may try to shorten the gap, it will never disappear."

For now, Navajo leaders are embracing the latest leap into the connected world. The data center itself will be another possible economic revenue stream, since businesses and organizations will be able to rent server space from the tribal authority.

“We are inviting companies, corporation, large groups across America to store their data here on the Navajo Nation," Navajo President Ben Shelly told the Daily Times. "It's a smart move."