Sept 28th, 1996 What Would Chief Ouray Have Thought? Southern Utes Go Wireless David R Hughes Principal Investigator National Science Foundation Wireless Field Test for Education Project This is the first report on the unprecedented use of wireless communications - no-licence data radios - on a Western United States Indian Reservation. The beginnings of use by the Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado to link its schools to each other and the outside world by advanced telecommunication techniques. Background The Southern Utes live on a reservation in the extreme southwest corner of Colorado which is some 10 miles deep and 70 miles wide, south of US 160 between Durango and Pagosa Springs, to the Colorado - New Mexico border. There are approximately 900 Southern Utes (of the 1,300 total) on the reservation, which itself is swiss-cheesed by many pockets of non-reservation lands that were settled by whites by the homestead acts of the last century. So roughly 4,500 total people live on the reservation, about 3,000 of them within 5 miles of Ignacio, the largest and most important reservation town, 27 or so road miles fromn Durango and Ft. Lewis College. The Indian Agency is close by Ignacio. The childen who live on the reservation, both white and Ute, go to public schools from two seperate Colorado Counties, which are not controlled by the Ute Tribe. However the Tribe operates its own, very important, Education Center, which is well equipped with modern computer technology - 75 PCs on a Novell network. Here a lot of homework and supplementary education for Indian children through high-school is done. There are four school buildings in Ignacio, elementary, middle, junior and high, schools. They too have computers and LAN networks. Then there are several other Tribal complexes, such as the Tribal Headquarters, with an Annex, containing a lodge and other visitor attractions, two miles away at 'The Agency.' Until 1996 none of these buildings or their computer networks, were connected to each other, much less the outside world. Preliminary Action Ft. Lewis College, in 1995-6 received a grant for extending the Internet to outlying schools from the Durango Center from some of the US West money fined by the Public Utilities Commission for its inadequate service. So Ft. Lewis Computing Department created an 'Internet Outreach' program staffed by Bill Ball and Jason Besky. They extended from Ft. Lewis college, 27 miles to Ignacio, three US West 56kbs dedicated telephone-date circuits. ($200 a month each circuit, or $600 total going to US West). These circuits went to: (1) The Ute Education Center (2) The Public High School (3) The Tribal Annex building. But with at least 8 seperate buildings in the Ignacio area alone, and 56Kbs lines running to only 3 of them, (US West was unable to provide any more than that) the Utes were hardly fully 'connected.' To extend telephone company 56kbs links to each of the buildings which needed it, would have run up the monthly bill into the several thousands of dollars a month catagory. It is already costing nearly $1,000 a month for the 3 56Kbs lines plus their $70 a month connection through the college to Colorado Supernet. The PC's are in the Public Schools, which Ute children attend. The Education Center is a Southern Ute organization that supplements public education for all ages and is for Utes only. The Southern Ute Community Action Program (SUCAP,a human service agency). The Public schools High School, Intermediate School and Elementary school are on the Novell Network with a total of 110-120 computers on the Novell and TCP/IP network. SUCAP/Education network has about 20 computers online. Wireless Action Bill Ball (ball_b@fortlewis.edu) had attended the Taos Community Networking Conference in May, heard from us (NSF Project and others) about the potential of no-licence Wireless for rural connectivity, and looked into it upon his return. The Southern Ute Tribe had received a seperate, NTIA grant of $214,000 a year before, to help connect up the tribe. So Ft. Lewis's Ball and Richard Jefferson, Ute Tribal member and the Assistant Education Director for the Southern Ute Indians worked out a plan and the Ute Tribe bought four Solectek 2Mbps radios - about $5,900 apiece, which operate in the FCC Part 15 902-928 Mhz bands. No licences required, so no monthly recurring costs for over T-1 speed connectivity. These radios connect: (1) the LAN at the Middle School to the High School's LAN and thence to the Internet by the first 56kbs wired line. (2) the LAN at the Southern Ute Community Action Center (SUCAP) building to the Tribal Education Center's LAN and thence to the Internet by the second 56Kbs line. The speed of the Wireless links is so high, that, in effect they have 'linked LANS' or a WAN - Wide Area Network. Giving both the Middle School students access to Server resources at the High School, and the SUCAP Center access to the Education Center's resources. As well as a lower speed connection to the Internet for all. Implications Since the scattered schools and buildings are fairly well equipped with computers, software, and resources, including 486's, 386's, and Power Macs, all of which are locally networked, the high speed wireless links permit a sharing that would be exhorbitantly expensive if it were done by T-1 fiber links between them. (even $200 a month 56Kbs lines between the buildings would not be fast enough. One needs at least 1Mbps for useful LAN work). In interviewing Richard Jefferson, Tribal member and Assistant Education Director, (rljeffer@southern-ute.nsn.us) it is obvious he is right on top of what the wireless can do for the Tribe, both for the education of children, and the linking of its several facilities. Heck, the tribe already had a domain name 'southern-ute.nsn.us' with nsn standing for 'Native Sovereign Nation.' They would like to connect up the Tribal Headquarters building to the Annex. And it certainly would be possible, after they master the uses of the wireless, to connect up all the closeby buildings by wireless, and depend on only one link to the Internet. And with proper survey of the requirements (relay site) for a wireless link to Durango, 600 more dollars a month paid to the telephone company could be eliminated. They were caught in the middle of a wired deployment when they picked up on wireless. But over time they can make the links even more cost-effective. And since Jefferson runs an OS2 Warp Connect server at the Education Center, it is perfectly possible for them to put up Web Site software at trivial cost, and present the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, its culture, heritage, items in its store in the Lodge for sale, its lodge offerings, and anything else of use to the public. Maybe Chief Ouray would approve. He was a progressive man. Dave Hughes dave@oldcolo.com 719-636-2040 voice This report is part of the information gathering that our National Science Foundation Wireless Field Tests for Education Project has been engaged in, besides our installing and testing under a wide variety of rural and urban educational circumstances wireless devices from short range wireless lans, to 25 mile T-1 radios, in Colorado. This report and others pertaining to the Project can be accessed by http://wireless.oldcolo.com to the Project's Web site.