Indian Telecommunications Initiatives Regional Workshop And Roundtable

The last two days of July found CNAPR’s Loris Taylor and Peggy Berryhill co-hosting a meeting in San Diego. The Intertribal Telecommunications Initiative meeting or ITI was co-sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, Center for Native American Public Radio, Southern California Tribal Chairman’s Association Tribal Digital Village, and the National Congress of American Indians. Over 90 tribal representatives attended the two-day event from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho, and Montana. Washington, Oregon Arizona and California, to name a few.

Cherie Moomaw, Colville Business Council   
 Omak District Representative

The event included presentations from various FCC departments. The first day was focused on telephony and broadband issues. Attendees heard presentations from FCC bureau chiefs in the wired and wireless divisions, enforcement, consumer relations and future initiatives like “internet over power lines.”

Day two was CNAPR’S turn to introduce the attendees to the Native Radio System and the urgency of the upcoming Non-Commercial Educational filing window for new frequencies. According to the FCC, the existing 33 Native owned radio stations make-up only 1.23 % of radio station ownership in this country. We also learned that the NCE filing window will not likely open before the summer of 2007, thus giving CNAPR and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters more time to get the word out to tribal nations interested in starting their own radio station. This FCC NCE window may be the last chance for tribes to secure broadcast spectrum for their communities. Like land and water, spectrum has become a highly sought after commodity.

We met several Tribal representatives who were interested in starting stations. We also heard from tribes who are “locked out” from securing frequencies in their areas. Like the Eastern Band of Cherokees who encountered problems in trying to find an available frequency that would serve their needs since they are in an area already saturated with stations. Brandon Stephens shared his problem directly with the FCC officials and used the CNAPR Frequency Map to demonstrate the lack of available frequencies and potential Channel 6 interference problem. The good news is that there may be a solution for Brandon with the allotment of channels to digital television that could eliminate the Channel 6 interference problems in all but a few markets.

In late June, the FCC issued a public notice seeking comment on ways to increase minority, women, and small business media ownership. The FCC will also attempt to set rules governing the number of radio and television stations that companies can own, cross-ownership between newspapers and television and television and radio. During the ITI, the FCC announced that it will be holding six hearings on media ownership across the country. Commissioner Adelstein and Taylor agreed to work together to make sure that the Native American voice is heard during these proceedings and included in the official record. CNAPR staff has begun work on planning this important hearing in collaboration with the NFCB and will keep you posted.
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In addition the FCC representatives learned a lot from the Tribal leaders who emphasized that Native Americans are not “minorities” but sovereign governments. Donna Begay, representing Jackson Rancheria of California reminded the FCC of its government-to-government relationship with tribal governments and that the proper way of doing business was to frame the relationship in terms of “federal, Tribes, state, county” and not “federal, states, counties and then Tribes.” Begay said the latter way of thinking meant that by the time Tribes needs are addressed, the resources are depleted.

This ITI meeting was also an opportunity to meet the new FCC tribal liaison Shana Barehand who did a superb job in planning and carrying out the meeting. We hope to see more Native radio faces at upcoming meetings but if you can’t make it, remember CNAPR is your voice, so keep in touch with us so that we can ensure that the voice of Native radio is heard. Your voices and opinions make a difference!