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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.
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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!!!
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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
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