Oklahoma’s Choctaw Nation, headquartered in LeFlore County, received a $22 million USDA grant to help provide high-speed internet.
The grant was announced this week at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Reservation Economic Summit in Las Vegas. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the grant, which is part of a $57,817,354 grant package.
Oklahoma Rural Development Director Kenneth Cohen expressed his gratitude to President Bush for the grant and said the President will continue to fulfill his commitment to Oklahoma tribal leaders to ensure that all Native people have the right to live in their tribes Home and live a prosperous life.
“I am extremely proud to join Secretary Vilsack today to reaffirm the President’s commitment to rebuild our economy from the inside out, and from the bottom up, by delivering high-speed internet, clean water and critical infrastructure to people in communities around the world, especially It’s in chronically underserved places like rural Oklahoma.”
The Choctaw Nation’s $22 million will be used to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network to provide high-speed Internet. The network will benefit 1,988 people, 12 businesses and 100 farms in LeFlore County. The Choctaw Nation will provide affordable high-speed internet through participation in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program. According to the USDA announcement, the project will serve socially disadvantaged communities in the Choctaw Tribal Statistical Area and LeFlore County.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack also announced at the summit that the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota will receive nearly $35 million in grant investments for high-speed internet, and the Yomba Shoshone Tribe of Nevada will receive A $772,000 grant investment will fund improvements to provide clean drinking water to the tribe.
Funding sources for these projects include the Reconnect Program and the Water and Waste Facilities Loans and Grants to Mitigate Health Risks on Tribal Lands program.