Coeur d’Alene Tribe to build technical center in Plummer, ID

USDA grant will provide funding

The economy, education and health care will be some of the beneficiaries of a new $3 million technical center opening this fall.

By RICK THOMAS
Staff writer

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2004/06/02/business/bus01.txt

Funded by a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service and matched with 15 percent in additional funds from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the new facility will introduce broadband Internet to the reservation and provide a variety of training programs to the community.

"There has been a digital divide on the reservation," said Valerie Fast Horse, the tribe’s director of management information support, which as of Tuesday’s official groundbreaking for the facility will be the information technology department. "This is an opportunity to close that divide and help people with economic development efforts. Broadband has unlimited potential."

The two-story, 7,500-square-foot facility being built behind tribal headquarters will feature 40 work stations in Mac, Windows and Linux formats. That, said Fast Horse, will allow users the flexibility to work with whatever program they are most familiar.

The focus will be on education, building human capacity with technical skills to make them more employable, she said.

Once the broadband infrastructure is in place, further educational opportunities will be available, such as distance learning from North Idaho College.

The system could be invaluable in recruiting business to the reservation, said Fast Horse.

"It’s been difficult to find outside investors," she said. "This piece of the puzzle is as important as roads, water and sewers."

Fast Horse worked with Bob Spaulding to write a grant application in 2002. She calls it "the blind leading the blind," as it was her first time.

"Valerie had the vision," said Spaulding. "A lot of little things, a lot of big things."

He said the mountainous area will make the project particularly costly because of the need for a system of microwave transmission antennas.

Dale Bates, quality improvement manager for the Benewah Medical and Wellness Center, said the communication lines will create opportunities for improvements in tele-medicine and access to outside specialists.

Tom Cronin, the tribe’s chief of police, said the system will later improve law enforcement capacity in the tribe’s 537 square miles. Substations and in-car data processing are among the possibilities, he said.

"We get to learn from other departments what works and what doesn’t," said Cronin.

Wanda Matt, a 27-year resident of the reservation, said she’s amazed at the strides made over the years.

"This is pretty neat," she said. "The store, the casino, the wellness center — now this."

She said it will be a valuable asset for the children of the area, who are already wise to the ways of technology.

And the modern technology will also help prevent further loss of ancient tribal culture, said Fast Horse.

A room in the lower level will be set aside for storage of tribal artifacts now scattered throughout the community, and the high-speed system will allow development of training programs to instruct students in the tribal language.

"Our language is in jeopardy," she said. "There are only a few left who know it."