About the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe
About the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is a single community, known as Akwesasne, meaning “land where the partridge drums.”17 It is crossed by the Canada-United States international border (New York - Quebec/Ontario), but tribal members are able to freely cross this settler-colonial border under the terms of the Jay Treaty of 1794. Both the United States federal government and the New York State government have separate government-to-government relationships with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe. The community is home to about 1500 households. There are three tribal enterprises: the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort. Akwesasne TV, and Mohawk Networks.
Brief History of Mohawk Networks
Mohawk Networks started out as an idea in the mid-2000s to provide everyone in the community reliable Internet access. It took close to a decade to determine the best project plan and to secure funding. This was one of the first fiber networks to be built by a Native Nation using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Mohawk Networks uses both Fiber-to-the-Home and fixed wireless to connect everyone in the community. St. Regis Mohawk New York Building Indigenous Future Zones: Four Tribal Broadband Case Studies 16 ILSR.org MuniNetworks.org Allyson Mitchell, General Manager at Mohawk Networks, described how it took a couple years to build out the fiber network, stringing about 70 miles of fiber along poles throughout the community. They made sure the anchor institutions, such as government buildings, were connected first, but the network was built methodically from one side of the community to the other. It cost approximately $15 million to build, but by 2015, the fiber network was completed and fully operational. At the same time that the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe was planning for the fiber network, there was another project in the works to address the digital divide in the community. Connectivity is only one piece of the equation; devices are also important. In 2010, a Broadband Technology Opportunity Program grant brought 60 public computers to key places throughout Akwesasne, including the Boys & Girls Club, the Cultural Center, and the Office of the Aging’s Senior Center.18 With this project, everyone can access the Internet, even if they do not have a home connection through Mohawk Networks. Now that Mohawk Networks’ fiber network is complete, the network can be extended out to new homes as they are built. But there is also a fixed wireless option available. Mohawk Networks’ fixed wireless network is a separate project that ensures connectivity for rural areas, and the flat terrain makes it easy to reach everyone with high-quality Internet access. The fixed wireless can even reach off-territory, and Mohawk Networks offers service in parts of Franklin and Lewis Counties. Mohawk Networks is one of the few Native Nations’ networks providing Internet access beyond the borders of its reservation. This is an opportunity for economic development that serves both the tribe and neighboring non-tribal towns with high-quality Internet access.
Network Details
Population Served The network reaches 1500 households using Fiber-to-the-Home (southern portion of community) and fixed wireless (northern portion of community and off-territory).
