Along with becoming a staple of education, business and social interaction, the Internet, social media and all "new media" technologies are proving to be of great value for health care and health-related communications. For large segments of Native American and Alaskan Native (NA/AN) populations, however, the “information highway” does not yet have access ramps.

 

This "digital divide" was first recognized in the 1990’s ― the phrase was coined in an October, 2000 US Department of Commerce report ― and the deficiency has been remedied or addressed for many NA/AN institutional and academic interests. But an underlying problem of geographic remoteness excludes large numbers of those on Reservations or in rural areas, where availability of broadband is sporadic at best and access to cellular or wireless technology is limited. Less than 20% of Native American households have access to the Internet, and most do not have basic telephone service.

 

Progress has been made for schools and colleges since 2000. At that time, a National Science Foundation award of $6 Million was provided to fund a four-year Advanced Networking Project with Minority Serving Institutions (AN-MSI), to work with U.S. tribal colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and traditionally Black colleges and universities to improve Internet connectivity, campus networks and technical support, and advanced use of networks. In January 2000, about 100 of the approximate 350 minority-serving institutions joined the project to define networking requirements and to determine and implement solutions.

 

The three communities worked together, albeit selecting different solutions to best address their respective networking problems, and compiled a summary of the project’s activities. Thomas Davis, Mark Trebian and other leaders of the tribal college activities within AN-MSI concurred in the determination that tribal and other communities can best devise solutions based on their respective environments and needs, to permanently end disparities between communities with a technological advantage and tribal communities without; that bringing tribal communities to technological parity will require cooperative efforts across government and tribal boundaries; and that equal opportunities for Native American populations is tied to their participation in technological development and use.