The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, based in LeFlore County, has received a $22 million grant from the USDA 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 of $57,817,354 in grants.
Kenneth Cohn, director of the Oklahoma Department of Rural Development, said President Bush praised the grant and said it was a collaboration with Oklahoma tribal leaders to ensure that all Native Americans have the right to live a prosperous life on their tribal homelands. He said the president continues to deliver on his promises.
“Today, I am here with Secretary Vilsack to reaffirm the President’s commitment to rebuilding our economy from the middle down to the top by providing high-speed internet, clean water, and critical infrastructure to people in every community. I couldn’t be more proud to do what we do, especially in places like rural Oklahoma that have been underserved for far too long.”
The $22 million to the Choctaw Nation will be used to deploy a campus fiber network that will provide high-speed internet. This network will benefit his 1,988 people, 12 businesses and 100 farms in Leflore County. The Choctaw Nation makes high-speed internet affordable by participating in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program. The project will serve socially vulnerable communities in the Choctaw Tribble statistical area and Le Flore County, according to a USDA announcement.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack also announced at the summit that the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota will receive nearly $35 million in grant investments for high-speed internet, and the Yonba Shoshone Tribe in Nevada will receive improvements that will bring clean drinking water. announced that it will receive a grant investment of $772,000. To the tribe.
These projects are funded through the Reconnect Program and the Water and Waste Facility Loan and Grant Program to Reduce Health Risks on Tribal Lands.
