How the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota created its own wireless education network with help from MuralNet for around $250,000.

Leaders with the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in central South Dakota say they have found a low-cost solution to the tribe’s computer and internet needs that will aid education but which may ultimately improve life overall in the community.

Gourneau said he met an executive with an organization called MuralNet by chance at a conference for tribal chairmen before the COVID-19 pandemic began. MuralNet was founded in 2017 specifically to help tribal governments exert sovereignty over their peoples’ internet access. Gourneau didn’t know it at the time, but his chance meeting actually put the Lower Brule Tribe in a unique position to eventually build its wireless internet network.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe wireless network has been put into operation for around $250,000, Gourneau said.

And unlike the Verizon and AT&T hotspots many other tribes have purchased for their students, Lower Brule’s network is both permanent and wholly owned by the tribe itself.

The tribe no longer will have to rely on an outside entity to provide its people with what has become an essential tool for economic development, education and overall quality of life, Gourneau said.

“Everything we’re doing is all with the vision of being self-sufficient and not depending on the government,” Gourneau said.