A Brief But Spectacular take on the power of connection

Geoff Bennett:

Finally tonight, a Brief But Spectacular take on digital equity.

Amna Nawaz:

Matthew Rantanen shares his insights from his decades-long work expanding broadband in Indian country.

Matthew Rantanen, Founder, Tribal Broadband Boot Camp:

You're watching this today. You're probably looking at it on a mobile device, and you're very fortunate to be able to do that, that you have streaming capability to be able to watch something like a video, where Indian country still does not have this access.

I grew up in Washington around some tribes, the Nez Perce, the Coeur d'Alene, the Colville, the Spokane. I got to see what reservation life was like. We would play soccer over there, and they didn't have the same resources. As soon as you drove onto the reservation, things seemed different.

During the Obama administration, I worked with the CTO of the United States to identify the missing link, right, between why did tribes not have access to broadband? Twenty-five years ago, when fiber-optic networks were laid across the United States, they were doing it at a fast pace. They did not know how to navigate a tribal government, so they built around the reservation border and kept going.

The benefits of a broadband coverage in the tribal space is that telemedicine, education, access to job search, vocational training, e-commerce, without broadband you don't have access to any of that.

I created the Tribal Broadband Boot Camp with Christopher Mitchell. It was in direct response to an outcry from tribes for information and access to funding and access to resources around broadband. They get in there, and they had one solution, and they have solved their problem one way, when they don't know that another tribe has done something differently, and there's an alternative solution to be able to do that.

They have become each other's resources. They don't have to rely outside of Indian country to solve problems together. My vision for the future is, all the tribes that can manage and operate their own communications networks get funded to do so, and then those tribes that don't have the opportunity have the ability to work with tribes that do and scale up tribal companies that would support those smaller reservations that don't have the capacity to do it themselves, Indian country supporting Indian country.

A cyber warrior, to me, is — it's me. I'm doing policy work in D.C. with the Federal Communications Commission, with Congress. I'm liaising between the California Department of Technology and all 109 tribes in California to get them access to broadband.

I'm certainly shaped like a warrior, 6'4", like 270, and ready to go.

My name is Matthew Rantanen, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on the power of connection.

Amna Nawaz:

And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.