Reservation Finds Future For Youth After ITDRC Connectivity
Tribes Fight For Their Children To Have Access To The Internet
Welcome to the Big World Of The Wide Web
MelvinJohn Ashue sniffs and looks away.
“It works,” says ITDRC technician Bless Booth, “Nice and strong, should cover this whole area.”
Lowering his hat, MelvinJohn apologizes for becoming emotional, as Booth points to the full bars of Wifi on his phone.
MJ peeks at the phone and steps back.
“Oh man,” he says holding back tears, “you just don’t know what this is going to mean, this is going to mean so much for our youth.”
The only Internet available on the Hoh reservation, in Washington, was in the admin office, where the council meets. The rest of the land, about 1600 acres, is dead space for cell phones.
MJ would arrive at the admin building for meetings, always to find the “rez teenagers” sitting on the wood steps near the front door.
The Internet provided to the admin building is equivalent to dial up, and most families on the reservation don’t own a computer.
If you own a computer, they (the teens) know, MJ jokes.
MJ is a member of the council for the Hoh tribe, he has acted as vice chair for seven years. And has been fighting for better Internet since 2012.
“The Internet means a lot to our youth, they know what it can do for them,” he explains, “When I would arrive for meetings, there they are, they would beg, please don’t make us get off the Internet.”
Without a chief to speak for the Hoh tribe, the help is slow to come. And without proper Internet the tribe is limited on the grants they can apply for.
MJ triple checks this new connectivity, like he has been doing since the team arrived.
“What do we have to do to use it?” MJ asks, looking for the catch.
“Well, just click right there where it says Homework Hotspot and boom, you’re on,” says Booth.
“So, this is for the Hoh tribe?” asks MJ.
“It’s your’s man, whatever you want to do on the Internet, you can do,” says Booth.
MJ stares at the connection on Booth’s phone and pulls his phone out of his back pocket.
“So, it will work on my phone right now?” And for the first time, the WiFi tower lights up on MJ’s phone.
Just like that he is connected to the world, his tribe stands a chance.
Endless possibilities.
He starts rattling them off:
“We can sell our carvings online!”
“We can share our boat races with other tribes.”
“This is really going to change how many grants we can apply for.”
A long fight has wrapped up for the Hoh Tribe and the man behind the path towards broadband can hardly believe he’s connected his people.
MJ asked for broadband in 2012, through a grant. The prison 12 miles down the road also asked for Internet.
The prison got what they asked for and the reservation waited another eight years.
MJ was furious.
“Prisoners have better Internet than my children” says MJ.
ITDRC is working with 31 tribal nations across 11 states to help connect reservations to the Internet and bridge the broadband divide across the country through its projectConnect initiative.
The digital divide has always been felt by communities like the Hoh, but COVID-19 lock down has amplified just how undeserved they are.
The kids who live on the reservation have missed months of school. And while distance learning has been a strain on all families, studies show students with connectivity may only be a few months behind when school starts again.
While those in undeserved communities, without broadband or technology, could be a year behind come August.
The new connectivity will help tribes fight COVID-19 as numbers continue to rise among natives.
The tribes will be able to use the Internet for telehealth, collect data of those infected, and give native children a chance to learn from home.
“I wish the government would do more to include everybody,” MJ says “We’ve all felt like we’ve been left out, you guys are the first ones to help us.”
Fight Of Their Lives
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Native Americans have a disproportionately higher chance of having underlying health complications like diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. They’re also more likely to live in poverty and be uninsured, the HHS said.
Tribal governments have sued the Department of Treasury after $8 billion in aid they expected to receive from the 2 trillion CARES Act was blocked.
With the knowledge that help was not on the way, the Hoh went into lock down early into COVID-19.
The tribe had to arrange their own 24 hour security task force. MJ’s sister, Cecilia Ashue helped organize the task force, which takes place in four shifts. No one was to leave the reservation without logging in and out.
The tribe does not have a COVID-19 testing site, or even a doctor. If a member chose to get tested it would require them to travel to the city, and returning to the reservation would put the entire tribe at risk.
“It’s frustrating that our people cannot be tested, when someone has to leave the rez, you worry,” says Cecilia Ashue, MJ’s sister.
No Child Offline
Ashue knew that keeping tourists out wasn’t the only problem, they had to work to keep the families they were protecting alive and connected.
With many families living below the poverty line on the rez, parents and children alike relied on school lunches.
Determined to limit the exposure to the tribe, Ashue volunteered to pick up and deliver school lunch to every child on the reservation.
Ashue understands this puts her and her family at a higher risk of infection — but as a mother herself, she will risk anything for her tribe, and she refuses to let the children go without a meal.
Ashue says if she’s the only one to go, then the tribe only has to monitor one person’s health instead of every family.
“We can’t have every family go” says Ashue, “We are locking down to be safe… if one person gets sick here, most likely a majority of our population would get sick and we would lose.”
The Hoh believe they only have two things: their people and their land. The risk of losing both has been a weight on the community.
After the first couple of weeks of going to the city to gather lunches, Ashue says fear closed in on her.
“I would break down and cry,” she says. “It’s not okay that we have to risk everything to get tested, it’s not okay that my kids are behind because the teachers will only do online work.”
Since the reservation did not have Internet, Ashue started making trips to Costco while on her lunch runs. She bought a basket full of board games and delivered them with the lunches. When the kids got tired of that she delivered chalk, coloring books, and jump ropes.
Ashue also takes the children hiking through the woods, to give the parents a break. “We just get in the trees until we see the beach,” she says.
The children are used to swimming and washing in the water. This year they got to the beach and they waited.
“Is it safe?” they asked.
“I tell them here we give our fears back to nature” says Ashue. “We breathe in the trees and we have been cleansing ourselves with fresh water because we know what it means if we lose.”
COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities for the Hoh, but none more than the fact that students without technology will fall behind. Before lock down students would travel to libraries to complete assignments but now even that is out of reach.
“We are trying, but that doesn’t stop the school from calling saying my kids are behind,” explains Ashue. “The teachers ask why my kids aren’t online and I had to say look we don’t have that, we don’t have the Internet.”
Now with the Internet installed at the center of the tribe, kids pile up on the steps once again but this time every tablet and phone is connected.
MJ leans against his truck, there was no meeting planned for today, he just came by to see the moment he’s been thinking of since the fight began in 2012. Every child on the reservation has access and opportunities.
Ashue sits behind a group of children smiling as they play online. “I want them to know the Internet can be fun too, not just for homework” she says.
The Hoh knows they need more than the power of nature to face the disease spreading through their land, “The Internet is a good start, we’ve been fighting for our younger population who was missing out,” says MJ as kids talk about TikTok dances, catch up on assignments, and play Monkey Mayhem on the Homework Hotspot.
“It’s going to be a good summer for them,” he says “this generation is going to show us a lot and this Internet will change the way we all live, our children will show them they are worth it.”
