Tribal Connections Project, Phase 1
Final Report, May 1998 - April 2001
Summary Overview

The Tribal Connections Project (Overview) was created in 1998 to assist American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) communities in the northwest in connecting to the Internet. The hope was that by facilitating Indian Connectivity, this would help minimize isolation and improve access to social and health resources for rural and remote Indian communities. The Tribal Connections Project (Project Background) was funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) coordinated through the Regional Medical Library at the University of Washington, Seattle. The project was divided into two phases. Phase 1 (1998 through 1999) was designed to provide assistance to 16 American Indian/Alaska Native communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington in connecting to the Internet. Phase 2 in 2000 expanded the methodology of the project to four American Indian communities in the four corners area of the Southwest. The long-term goal of the Tribal Connections Project (TCP) was to demonstrate that increased Internet connectivity provides greater access to health information resources, thereby minimizing geographical isolation and improving access to preventive and diagnostic information, and new knowledge.

Index to TC Phase 1 Final Report Staff Overview Project Background Project Description Lessons Learned Accomplishments

The three major objectives of the project were to:

1. Establish and improve technology infrastructure for Internet connectivity.
2. Ensure sustained and continued technologic progress.
3. Increase motivation, skill and use of online health information resources to address local health disparities.

Roy Sahali, an expert in community development and network design, was hired to manage the project. An Advisory Panel was appointed, with broad representation, including American Indian/Alaskan Native health professionals, experts in information and communication technologies for American Indian communities, representatives of Indian Health Boards, and experts in community development. The advisory panel provided guidance throughout the project in reviewing criteria, plans, and project implementation and evaluation.

Tribes submitted competitive applications for funding (Project Description), and sixteen communities were selected to receive funding and assistance. There was representation from each of the five states in the Pacific Northwest region, including large and small communities, proposing a variety of connectivity solutions relevant to their situations. RML librarians provided training on Internet skills for all but one of the sixteen sites. Hardware installation and connections as well as training for all 16 sites was completed by the end of the PNRs NN/LM five year contract in April of 2001.

Initial community objectives, in every case, emphasized hardware and connectivity. The communities emphasized that access to the Internet was the major problem and that use of Internet resources could not be considered until the access problems were solved. Each American Indian or Alaska Native community was eligible for up to $25,000; the exact amount was determined in negotiation with the Project Manager and was based on the proposal objectives drawn up by each community. Tribes were self-contained as communities in all the traditional senses of community--geographically, culturally, and with a common purpose. Therefore, they were ideal sites to work with in community capacity development.

Our five guiding principles were: 1) collaboration, 2) participatory planning, 3) interdisciplinary teamwork, 4) flexibility, and 5) acknowledgement. Our first step in every contact was to establish trust — belief by our participants that we would adhere to these principles.

The entire process (Lessons Learned) took much longer than expected owing to the amount of time to build trust, to initiate participative planning and build interdisciplinary team work. We were most successful when we capitalized on activities already underway in the community or in the environment at large. In every community, the Project Manager was able to forge relationships and collaborations with local, state and federal agencies such as the Department of Information Services and the state library system, and with federal agencies such as the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

The project helped spark discussion on the value of technology and community development in the context of comprehensive tribal planning (Accomplishments). Collaborations within any one community and collaborations with outside agencies were part of our planned approach. We found a need within the communities for more hands-on technical support than we were able to provide. The concept of computers and related technology is not new to tribal staff; however having dedicated staff on site specifically to support personal computers and LANs often is new.

Lack of training in the use of computer resources in general was a challenge. Most tribal office staff knew computer basics, e.g., word processing and sometimes e-mail and Web surfing, but information gathering and evaluation skills were often missing. Several tribes saw the Tribal Connections projects as an opportunity to encourage youth to learn technical support skills that would benefit their future careers and strengthen the tribal work force and economic base.

It is impossible at this point to know whether the effects of our intervention will be sustained by the communities in the long-term. Where we collaborated with other agencies for connectivity we have greater confidence that the connectivity will be continued and that our work in these communities will be sustained into the future.