Reading Annotation Blog 1.3

 Tribal sovereignty is the tribe’s right to be in control and implement their own government and law enforcement. Legally and politically this ensures that the federal government cannot continue to take everything that belongs to the tribe, this protects the people as well. Marisa Elena Duarte says, “While the sovereign rights of tribes continue to be the most powerful legal and political mechanism that US tribes have for negotiating with the federal government, and the top defense against state encroachment and private citizens wishing to profit off tribal lands and bodies”. Being able to have their own government can help them to control the improvement and infrastructure needed to preserve their culture which heavily relies on their lands and waters. 

Duarte explains internet access for those who live on reservation lands as such, “It is perhaps easy for city-living folks to imagine the Internet as something “out there,” as invisible and ephemeral as droplets of water in the air we breathe, and with data centers and network operations as nondescript as the next strip mall. It is more realistic for tribal residents to conceptualize the Internet as something “right here,” with decisions about where to build towers shaped by seasonal rhythms of hunting, wildfires, and prayer, not to mention the matter of land and edifice allocation.” For those of us who have practically uninterrupted internet access 24/7, we don’t have to worry about how that’s getting to us. For those on reservations and even some more rural communities getting internet access is more of a problem that needs lots of funds and planning to make happen. On reservations in particular it’s a matter of where to put a tower in that won’t impede their way of life as well as how to afford the infrastructure of such an endeavor.


I have attached an article discussing broadband access in reservations.

https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2019/the-digital-divide-in-indian-country


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