"Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain - Indigenous Internet Infrastructure" illustrates the hardships Native Americans face in using the internet and connecting to the external world. Indians in Southern California rely on the Tribal Digital Village (TDV), an innovative and successful solar wireless internet distribution network, for internet usage. Although residents at many Indian Reservations use the internet on a daily basis, the reality is that a significant number of the population still live without phones, paved roads, or even constant electrical power. Native Americans are systematically neglected by telecommunication companies such as the AT&T, due to reasons such as lack of infrastructure and difficult geographical location. Indians are constantly suffering from digital inequality - they lack access to internet or technology that the rest of the United States has unlimited access to. It is the responsibility of the government to maintain and ensure that Native Americans are not discriminated in the rapidly developing technological world.
Before anyone puts forward the argument of digital equality, it is crucial to identify why telecommunication companies avoid expanding to Indian Reservations. Dating back to when Native Americans were first relocated to Indian Reservations, it is essential to note that such reservations were chosen as prisons. The land was selected by the government to isolate Native populations and to remove them from their homelands. Because such lands were inhospitable from the start, infrastructure is ultimately difficult to provide in such regions. Nonetheless, unapproachability cannot be an excuse from the American government to discriminate the Indians from modern technology. The fact that the government is responsible for enhancing the quality of lives of Native Americans by providing the internet and other means of communicative technology does not change.
We live in a world where the internet is treated as a daily necessity. Without internet, societies would not function properly because individuals won't be able to communicate to each other, search useful information from the web, or perform tasks that require servers. Internet is only a very minute part of the modern technology. Telecommunication companies offer 3G and LTE, which enable smartphone users to have access to the internet even in places without wifi signals. Living in such a modern, high-technology world, many individuals cannot imagine what it would be like to live in a world without such technologies. I think that it is necessary for people living in the modern world to think from the perspective of the Native Americans - a world without internet, a world without constant electricity, and a world without the most basic infrastructure.
Being such, I highly admire efforts of Joseph, Michael and Matt to bring about change in the Indian community. They established a network tower on top of a mountain on the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation so that Indians could gain access to internet and connect to the external world. I believe that the government, or even NGOs could donate funds to aid those who are actively engaged in the Indian community and those are trying to improve the standard of lives of Native Americans.
Before anyone puts forward the argument of digital equality, it is crucial to identify why telecommunication companies avoid expanding to Indian Reservations. Dating back to when Native Americans were first relocated to Indian Reservations, it is essential to note that such reservations were chosen as prisons. The land was selected by the government to isolate Native populations and to remove them from their homelands. Because such lands were inhospitable from the start, infrastructure is ultimately difficult to provide in such regions. Nonetheless, unapproachability cannot be an excuse from the American government to discriminate the Indians from modern technology. The fact that the government is responsible for enhancing the quality of lives of Native Americans by providing the internet and other means of communicative technology does not change.
We live in a world where the internet is treated as a daily necessity. Without internet, societies would not function properly because individuals won't be able to communicate to each other, search useful information from the web, or perform tasks that require servers. Internet is only a very minute part of the modern technology. Telecommunication companies offer 3G and LTE, which enable smartphone users to have access to the internet even in places without wifi signals. Living in such a modern, high-technology world, many individuals cannot imagine what it would be like to live in a world without such technologies. I think that it is necessary for people living in the modern world to think from the perspective of the Native Americans - a world without internet, a world without constant electricity, and a world without the most basic infrastructure.
Being such, I highly admire efforts of Joseph, Michael and Matt to bring about change in the Indian community. They established a network tower on top of a mountain on the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation so that Indians could gain access to internet and connect to the external world. I believe that the government, or even NGOs could donate funds to aid those who are actively engaged in the Indian community and those are trying to improve the standard of lives of Native Americans.