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Gates grant brings Internet access to Navajo Nation
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A $15 million Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation grant has brought the Navajo Nation into the 21st century.

The grant supplied satellite dishes and wireless Internet networks to all 110 chapters of the Navajo Nation. People of all ages are using the system, said Renda Fowler, the community services director for the Tonalea chapter in Arizona

"We're a long ways from the nearest good public library and this gives us access to information," Fowler told The Arizona Republic. "The older people also are picking it up more and more because they've seen how you can use pages like eBay to buy and sell things."

More than 90 percent of tribal members now have e-mail, said the executive a company that installed the wireless network.

Get the Story:
Tribe's tech plan a model program (The Arizona Republic 9/19)

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