This needs to be noted here:
According to the Pentagon, they represent less than 1 percent of the population, but makeup about 1.6 percent of the armed forces. In some tribal communities, 1 out of every 200 adults have served in the military. Currently, nearly 20,000 native American and Alaskan native people are in uniform.
I’m not wild about the publication but the statistics need to be posted here.
Welcome to News from Native American Netroots, a weekly series focused on indigenous tribes primarily in the United States and Canada, but inclusive of international peoples also.
Our format will be evolving and our focus of coverage will broaden as the series develops.
News from Native American Netroots is unique as a news digest in the fact that this it is based on community contributions. Articles can be submitted in the commment thread or posted at Native American Netroots each week.
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Navajo Nation May Get Cutting-edge LTE Network
By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
The network, backed up by a 550-mile fiber backbone and microwave links, could make the Internet bloom for about 30000 households in the Navajo Nation,
The network, backed up by a 550-mile fiber backbone and microwave links, could make the Internet bloom for about 30,000 households in the Navajo Nation, which stretches across a vast region encompassing parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Fewer than 10 percent of the homes and businesses in the Nation have broadband today, according to Monroe Keedo, IT manager for Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), a multiservice utility that will operate the network. Mobile service is limited to 2G (second-generation) technology.
Navajo Nation bridging broadband divide with LTE
Seeking stimulus funds to bring fiber to 27,000-square mile Navajo reservation in Arizona, tribal utility plans to use 4G for last-mile broadband access.
Last Friday, one of the first live long-term evolution sites went live in the US, but it wasn’t in New York, San Francisco or any of the other major markets of the country. Nor was the cell site deployed by Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD), AT&T (NYSE:T), MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) or any of the other major wireless operators. Instead the ZTE base station was switched on in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the heart of the sprawling Navajo reservation.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) has partnered with Commnet Wireless to address one of the starkest examples of the digital divide in the US: the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation left largely behind by the digital and broadband revolution. Building a wireline broadband network to cover 400,000 people in what is an almost entirely rural reservation the size of West Virginia would be impossible. So NTUA and Commnet have decided to tackle the problem with wireless.
Navajo Nation explores 4G with DragonWave
Canadian equipment supplier DragonWave has announced that it has been contracted by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) to deploy a commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) field test across parts of the Navajo Nation. The NTUA is currently seeking funding to the tune of USD46 million to accommodate the deployment of fibre-optic infrastructure and LTE across the reservation, the largest Native American jurisdiction in the US, including a 530 mile fibre rollout and the installation of 57 LTE base stations, providing coverage of 15,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation.
Webinar on the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation
Join us for a Webinar on March 18, 2010. Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now!
As the Attorney General made clear at the Listening Session in October, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is committed to a sustained partnership with Tribal governments to improve public safety in Tribal communities, to ensure the security of Native women, and to build a better future for young people who are the future of Tribal communities. At the Listening Session, many Tribal leaders expressed a need to improve the Justice Department’s grant-making process. The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) is the Department’s FY 2010 solution.
OU College of Law International Human Rights Clinic Provides Opportunities for Students
By the end of the 2009-10 academic year, eight students at the University of Oklahoma College of Law will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have affected the lives of people who live thousands of miles away. These students participated in the first year of the OU College of Law International Human Rights Clinic which focused on indigenous populations in Guyana in South America during the fall semester and Panama in Central America during the spring semester.
Adding this component to the clinical education program was the idea of Professor Lindsay Robertson, Faculty Director of the American Indian Law & Policy Center and Associate Director of the Inter-American Center for Law & Culture. Robertson developed and proposed the concept for the clinic to the OU Law faculty in spring 2009. Students participating in the clinic research the conditions of a country’s indigenous population in order to develop and submit a report to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on that country’s compliance with certain human rights commitments and obligations.
Indian leaders address Obama’s budget
WASHINGTON – Indian leaders are increasingly weighing in on President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for 2011. A general sense of satisfaction is in the air – especially given an overall federal focus to clamp down on spending – although desired areas for improvement are becoming clear.
Soon after the president released his proposed budget the week of Feb. 1, it was apparent that the administration plans to maintain and strengthen support for a variety of Indian country programs.
Jefferson Keel, National Congress of American Indians president and Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, hit that point home in testimony Feb. 25 at an oversight hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Lawmakers OK Navajo trust fund settlement
The Utah Legislature has signed off on a court settlement that would send $33 million to the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation for alleged state mismanagement of a reservation oil royalties trust fund.
The Senate on Wednesday approved HJR32, already approved by the House, that would end a two-decade dispute that Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said had embarrassed the state since before he was in the Legislature.
“We have exposure for significantly more than this amount,” Valentine said in backing the settlement.
Pueblo returns to traditional name
Late last year, Santo Domingo Pueblo’s tribal council quietly, and unanimously, decided to change the pueblo’s name.
The traditional community, about halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, is now known as Kewa Pueblo.
The name change was disclosed at a meeting of the All Indian Pueblo Council in January, according to the Alvin Warren, secretary of the state Department of Indian Affairs.
population of American and Alaskan native people vs. non-native, vs. specific examples in service…