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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2011)
1 Spilyay Pdge 6 Tyvnoo, Warm Springs, Oregon December 14, 2011 Telecom Corner Down to the wire at Warm Springs Teleco B y M arsha Spellm an Warm Springs Telecommunica tions Co. The new telecom offices have been abuzz with lots of activity as we near our service launch date. In the past few weeks, there have been a total of five teams of engineers and contractors installing the final pieces of net work facilities, wireless equip ment and Central Office equip ment. You may have seen some of this activity going on as trucks, workers and reels of fiber op tic cable have dotted the hillsides around W arm Springs. So, what’s the latest news? MetaSwitch installed First, after months o f re modeling the old apparel factory building on Holliday Street, we now have a state of the art fa cility as our new home for the com pany’s Customer Service Center and Central Office. A ll o f the rack in g , DC power, battery back-up, standby generation, servers, grounding and tower work has been com pleted in and outside the Cen tral Office. But most importantly, this past week saw the physical in stallation of our MetaSwitch, the $355,000 soft-switch that is the “brains” behind the voice and data service that we will be providing. The next step is to load the software on the MetaSwitch and to connect it to the outside world. Part of that process has been the installation of a new wireless backbone from Eagle Butte to Madras. Installers from EZ Wireless have been climbing towers to install large microwave dishes that w ill take voice and data inform ation and send it via radio waves to our two tele co m m u n icatio n s c a rrie rs, Q uantum C o m m u nicatio ns and LS Networks. The larger dishes and radios replace the smaller ones that have been used by the tribes for the past seven years. Microwave links Last week, the new redun d an t m icro w av e lin k was tu rn ed up, w h ich has in creased the trib es’ potential b an d w id th cap acity by ten times its former capability. Speaking of the transition to the new techn olo gy, W arm Fiber optic cable Dave McMechan/Spilyay New signage is up at the teleco offices. As o f this past week, Warm Springs Telecom is now deliv ering high speed internet from Madras all the way to Tribal Administration. Springs Telecom O perations M anager Jo se M atanane re cently said, “We are very happy to have crossed this milestone to activate the new microwave links. “There is still a lot more to be done before we are in busi ness, but this is an important first phase of our cut-over.” Adam Haas, general manager, added, “We apologize for some brief internet service interrup tions while we switched radio equipment, but the new network is now fully redundant and much more reliable. The equip ment we have installed will en sure that all of our customers will have service that they can count on.” As of this past week, Warm Springs Telecom is now deliv ering high speed internet from Madras all the way to Tribal Administration. A number of key fiber optic cable projects are also nearing completion. As the wire-line backbone of the network, fiber is the robust material that en ables pulses of light to transmit voice conversations and data from your home to the rest of the world. Unlike the copper that ear lier networks used, optical fiber, which is made of glass, allows huge amounts of information to travel at very fast speeds, which is necessary for modern broadband Internet. We have con tracted w ith a com pany called TetraTech, to install the initial fiber projects. They have just com pleted running new fiber up to the Miller Flat tower above Warm Springs and that fiber is con nected back to the Central Of fice. They have also completed extending fiber to the new In dian Head Casino, our flagship custom er for Warm Springs Telecom. Customer service The Customer Service Cen ter has also been making good progress under the leadership of C ustom er Service M anager, Danica Greene. She is in the process of acti vating the very sophisticated Customer Master computer sys tem being provided by Mid Am erica Computer Corpora tion (MACC). This system will track service orders, trouble tickets, rates and packages, accounting and billing. “We are loading our server with the MACC software this week,” Danica said, “and we’ll begin a week of customer ser vice training on the new soft ware here in Warm Springs next week.” She added, “I spent a week last month at MACC in N e braska for their Jumpstart train ing, and I was really impressed with the people and software. I can’t wait for us to be in busi ness and start serving fellow tribal members.” With more hard work, good weather and luck, Danica will soon have her wish. (The Warm Springs Telecommu nications Company is a trihally char tered enterprise whose mission is to bring advanced broadband services to the Warm Springs tribes, including voice, data and video. The start-up company will begin delivering service in 2012.) News from Indian Country Tribal over Park City land set in Kansas WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - The legal fray over the Wyandotte Nation’s efforts to build a ca sino in Park City will now be played out in a Kansas court room in a case that pits Ameri can Indian sovereignty against the state's own economic inter ests in gambling. The Wyandotte Nation ini tially filed its federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., seeking to force the Interior Department to accept into trust a tract of Park City land the tribe bought in 1992. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows tribes to conduct gambling only on In dian lands, defined as land within its reservation or held in trust by the United States. Last week, the case was for m ally transferred to Kansas over the tribe’s objections. The move follow s U.S. D istrict Judge Beryl Howell’s ruling last month that the dispute is a mat ter of “significant local interest” that could best be handled in the federal judicial district where the land is located. The case was as signed to U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Topeka. Wyandotte Nation, formerly known as the Wyandotte Tribe o f O klahom a, contends that after it was restored as a fed eral recognized tribe in 1978, it needed to reacquire lands lost due to “the failed federal poli cies of the past.” The Wyandotte Nation contends it bought the Park City land using funds Con gress set aside to be used for land that would be put into trust for the tribe's benefit. Also last week, the Interior Department filed its response to the trib e’s claim s. In it, the agency argued that there is jus tification for its ongoing review of the tribe’s application and f î V FEMA supports allowing tribes to ask for aid WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The Obama administration says it supports changing the federal law governing disaster aid to let tribal governments apply d irectly to the W hite House for help. T he F ederal E m ergency M anagem ent A gency, which announced the administration’s stance Wednesday, says right now only governors can ask for a disaster declaration, which brings with it access to federal money to help a region recover from a disaster. Rep. Nick J. Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, introduced a bill earlier this year to let Na tive Am erican tribal govern ments apply directly for access to disaster aid. The bill has been referred to a House Transpor tation and Infrastructure sub committee. ' t t\ r + tv : t y : argued the tribe is not entitled to any relief from the court. The state of Kansas wants to intervene in the lawsuit to pro tect its taxing, regulatory and economic interests. The state has granted Peninsula Gaming the exclusive right to operate a ca sino in south-central Kansas and is building it just 25 miles from where the tribe wants to put one. While the Wyandotte Nation argues in its lawsuit that federal law compels the Interior Depart ment to accept the land into trust, Kansas claims the exact opposite: that the law prohibits the trust acquisition. So while tribe is seeking a court order compelling the Interior Depart ment to accept land into trust that has been pending for five years, the state is asking that the Interior Department be barred from accepting it. Tribe’s powwow on national list The Interio r D epartm ent does not oppose the state's re quest to join in the case, though it does not concede to its claims. The tribe has opposed the move by the state to join the lawsuit. Now that the case has been moved to Kansas, it will be up to Robinson to decide whether to allow the state to intervene. FO RT W ASH AK IE, Wyo. (AP) — The American Bus Association has desig nated the 53rd Annual East ern Shoshone Indian Days Powwow next year as one of the Top 100 events in North America. The powwow is set to be held next June 21-24. The Top 100 list was pub lished as a supplement to the September/October issue of Destinations magazine. The American Bus Asso ciation says the listing indi cates that Eastern Shoshone Indian Days offers excellent entertainment value to both tour groups and individual travelers from around the world. ***5-hour SALE*** 9 a m -2 pm **SKYN STYLE** (Located A t Plaza n ext to Deli) v :t v t Y i Open till 8pm this Friday!!! y fv -tv tv tv tv t> m m Thursday ~ December 15th 5:30pm - 8:30pm $5 off ANY Cell phone! $5 Off Any New T-shirt! $5 off ANY new Shoes! $5 off BLANKETS!!! Community Center Social Hall A light dinner will be provided. * ** ** Hosted by the Joint Health Commission NAME BRANDS***** NEW INVENTORY!! 5 4 1-5 5 3 -10 0 6 Annual Health System Report for 2010 Presentation & Discussion i " \