Tristani wants FCC to help with reservation phones
Story-Date: 09:56 a.m. PST Friday   , July 31, 1998

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Tristani wants FCC to help with reservation phones



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Less than half the residents of Indian Country
have telephones, but a federal regulator says it's about time service got
better.

Federal Communications Commissioner Gloria Tristani, an Albuquerque native
and former member of the State Corporation Commission, wants the FCC to
review why so few telephones exist in American Indian households.

The 1990 Census found only 47 percent of residents on reservations with
more than 500 households had telephones, compared to 94 percent among the
general population.

Many tribal leaders are dealing with such issues as education, health and
the environment, so telecommunications takes a back seat, said Joe
Garcia of San Juan Pueblo, vice president of the Albuquerque area National
Congress of American Indians.

Tristani said she has been told many Indians don't consider telephones part
of their culture. Tristani recently held a roundtable discussion with FCC
Chairman Bill Kennard, tribal representatives and FCC staff members.

"I am certainly not here to tell Indian people that they really ought to
have telephones," she said. "I am here to say that it's not acceptable for
there to be 47 percent telephone penetration on reservations held in trust
by the federal government if far more Native Americans on those
reservations want service."

Some tribal representatives gave varied reasons for the lack of telephones
-- including poverty -- during a telecommunications workshop sponsored by
the Minnesota Professional Chapter of the American Indian Science and
Engineering Society.

"Many Indian people can't afford a phone," said Ronald Neiss, a member of
the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Utility Commission. He owns one of only three
phones in a cluster of about 30 homes on the South Dakota reservation, and
said neighbors rely on his phone in life-threatening situations.

"I feel bad when I'm not home," he said.

The FCC can help determine whether there are boundaries dividing
reservations that result in tolls on short-distance calls, Tristani said.

"If there are, I believe the FCC ought to grant a waiver of those
boundaries so we don't artificially increase the cost to Native Americans
of using basic local service," she said.

Kennard recently named Eric Jensen to temporarily fill an Indian Affairs
desk at the FCC so that someone is aware of the legal differences among
tribal, state and federal laws.



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