In an effort to bring Internet access to the isolated Navajo Nation American Indian reservation, UCSD’s Supercomputer Center has joined forces with New Mexico’s Navajo Technical Institute to establish a broadband wireless connection within the community.
The reservation is about the size of West Virginia, a great expanse of land that does not appear on many U.S. maps and exists in a social, cultural, economic and technological enclave. Most technological advancements of the last five decades have passed over this area, whose people live without standard technology common to most Americans, such as electricity, cell phones and the Internet.
Isolated by immense stretches of sand and dirt that go for miles into the high desert, utility providers, including telephone services, refuse to serve the Navajo Nation for lack of economic incentive.
The seclusion forces many members of the Navajo community – known as the Dine – to walk 10 miles just to make a call from a pay phone.
“”The idea is if the utility providers won’t do it, then we will do it for ourselves,”” SDSC Education Director Diane Baxter said.
As a main driving force behind the project, NTI Dean of Instruction Tom Davis’ vision is to change the dynamics of the Navajos’ situation.
Davis said that the partnership would significantly aid the Navajo Nation in climbing out of its technological rut.
“”The wealthy, the elite and the educated have the technology first and then it trickles down to the poor,”” Davis said. “”We’re trying to change that by moving the Navajo people into the engine of the technology train.””
SDSC’s experts, Baxter and programmer analyst Jim Hale, have been making periodic trips to NTI to aid it through a two-step process.
First, SDSC is helping NTI erect its own broadband towers, which will provide high-bandwidth Internet to the community.
Second, they are teaching wireless networking to Navajo personnel, who will eventually run and oversee the towers and spearhead the future of technological progress at the reservation. Among them is Jared Ribble, a student at NTI who has been interning at SDSC under Hale and Baxter.
“”We taught them what we can and they’re running with it,”” Baxter said.
Jan. 29 marked the groundbreaking launch of the first broadband tower for the Navajo Nation at “”An Internet to the Hogan and Dine Grid Event,”” during which the Navajos officially accepted Little Fe – a small cluster of computers – from TeraGrid, the world’s largest supercomputing network.
Ribble said he believes that this is the beginning of NTI’s technological future.
“”By bringing technological resources to a small tribal college, we want to entice the high school students to come to our program,”” Ribble said. “”We’re trying to make that transition more successful.””
However, Davis’ vision of Little Fe’s use goes beyond NTI.
“”We want to distribute Little Fe technology to provide significant computation resources to the poor in order to obtain economic stability,”” Davis said.
The technology and training that NTI has received from SDSC will be used to help students build and operate the towers, in order to create broadband networks for the community. Future Internet service carries greater prospects than just providing a means of communication, according to Baxter, because before Little Fe was implemented the Dine had very minimal educational opportunities.
Now, however, they will have access to online schooling.
“”This story isn’t about the computers,”” Baxter said. “”This story is about a community that is building an economy for themselves that empowers their people with education. These people are so wonderful, bright, eager and driven. They really want to see this happen for their people.””
At the ceremony, the Dine conducted a traditional blessing, which they do at the beginning of every construction.
