Remarks of

Michael K. Powell

Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

at Reception for Tribal Leaders and Representatives

FCC Indian Telecommunications Initiatives Regional Meeting

Rapid City, SD

May 25, 2004

(As Prepared for Delivery)

Good afternoon.

Honorable Tribal Leaders and Distinguished Tribal Representatives, it is
a pleasure to be here among the peoples of the Great Plains.

I want to begin by thanking the membership of the National Tribal
Telecommunications Association for working in cooperation with us to put
together tomorrow's Workshop and Roundtable. For years your companies
have been active in the Commission's efforts to reach out to Indian
Country and in the Commission's proceedings regarding important
telecommunications matters affecting Indian Country.

Individually and together, you have an invaluable understanding of what
it means to run a telecom business in Indian Country. We appreciate your
continued willingness to share that expertise and your commitment to
assist the FCC in its efforts to promote telecommunications issues on
Indian lands.

Through our Indian Telecommunications Initiatives, we hope to consult
with each other, to share and discuss the important issues impacting
telecommunications services on Tribal lands in furtherance of our
important federal trust responsibilities. Collectively, we are here to
acknowledge the important opportunities that telecommunications services
can bring to Tribal communities and discuss how we can all work together
to make that happen across Indian Country.

Telecommunications is key to unlocking opportunities to improve
learning, rural health care, public safety, and the operations of
government. Telecommunications can also be used to meet important
homeland security and public safety objectives, and to connect elected
leaders with the communities they serve. Innovative telecommunications
products and services appear almost daily -- VoIP, digital TV, smart
radio, and wireless applications just to name a few. Indian Country must
be a part of this telecommunications revolution.

Information technology and access to telecommunications as a means of
economic empowerment is essential to the future growth and increased
vitality of Tribal life -- bringing significant benefits to Tribal
financial, social, political, security, healthcare and educational
systems. It is already a reality that a new vibrant generation of Indian
youth will graduate from distance learning institutions offering
knowledge one once had to leave the Reservation to learn. History
teaches us that Tribal cultures have always been highly adaptive
societies, and increased access to technology will provide this
entrepreneurial spirit greater opportunities at home in Indian Country
than ever before.

Broadband connectivity will provide the basis for job opportunities and
support diversified economies. Broadband services must come to Indian
Country and we must all work together to bring it there.

The FCC is committed to working with Tribes to bring these important
telecommunications services to Indian Country. Our ITI program seeks to
foster understanding, cooperation and most importantly, trust. Through
our ITI efforts, and actions consistent with the principles of Tribal
self-governance, we endeavor to develop working relationships with
Tribes, consult with Indian Tribes on a government-to-government basis,
and solicit their input on the issues we address and the actions we
take.

These government-to-government relationships are the foundation for our
work in Indian Country to address communications problems, such as low
penetration rates and quality of service, historic preservation, and
other issues of mutual concern.

To strengthen our understanding of how telecommunications issues impact
Indian County, we seek to facilitate Tribal consultation on
telecommunications issues that impact Tribal lands. We are all here in
Rapid City to engage in consultation through our workshop and roundtable
discussions. We also aim to streamline administrative procedures to
identify and, to the extent authorized by law, remove undue
administrative and organizational impediments that our decisions and
actions may place on Indian Tribes.

Internally, to increase our collective knowledge, we are educating
Commission staff about Tribal governments and Tribal cultures,
sovereignty rights, Indian law, and Tribal communications needs. We also
are working cooperatively with other Federal departments and agencies,
as well as Tribal, State and local governments to further our goals, and
we incorporate all of these aims into our long-term planning and
management activities, including policy development processes and
management accountability systems.

Working together \-- American Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations,
the telecommunications industry and the FCC \-- we can tackle the
difficult issue of increasing access to critical telecommunications
services, and improving the quality of life and opportunities, in Indian
Country.

With our Regional Roundtables and Workshops we hope to achieve a level
of meaningful discussion and genuine understanding that will foster
valuable working relationships as we work together to address critical
telecommunications issues facing communities throughout Indian Country.
These are the goals of all our ITI efforts, and we have learned much in
developing these relationships.

Our outreach efforts and work with inter-tribal organizations, such as
the United South and Eastern Tribes, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest
Indians, and the National Congress of American Indians has given us both
national and regional perspectives of Tribes, their common interests and
concerns. Our travel to meet with Tribes on their own lands and in their
own institutions has taught us the individual challenges and unique
needs Tribes face in their communities and governments. Throughout the
FCC's visits to Indian Country, we have seen how dedicated and
resourceful Tribes have developed innovative applications and business
plans to address their specific needs.

One of the accomplishments I am most proud of involves the FCC's work
with the United South and Eastern Tribes to help bring wireless services
to Indian Country, while ensuring adequate protection of properties of
religious and cultural importance to Tribes. Through our efforts, the
FCC and USET signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) committing our
two organizations to continue our joint efforts to create a set of Best
Practices that will serve as guidance to the FCC, industry, and Tribes
on how to work together in the tower construction and historic
preservation process.

These Best Practices are being developed in the truest sense of the
government-to-government relationship -- across the table from each
other, shirt sleeves rolled up and pens in hand tackling difficult
issues in a mutually respectful manner. When we found good common ground
we opened the discussion to include members of the wireless and tower
construction industries, who have a vested interest in working with all
parties. NCAI has also become involved to help us learn how the Best
Practices may ultimately be utilized to benefit other areas of Indian
Country as well.

I want to note that the MoU that President Keller George of USET and I
signed marked a significant event in the history of the FCC. It is the
first agreement of its kind that the Commission has entered into with
American Indian Tribes. Here today, I again offer my highest
commendation to USET for its outstanding leadership and dedication to
this process.

To the National Congress of American Indians I say your presence is most
welcome on this matter so close to the heart of all of Indian
County---Cultural Preservation. The Tribes have my firm and unyielding
commitment to devote the staff and the resources of the agency to
completing this important task. This work serves as a model for future
work with the Tribes and I am committed to building on this foundation
in the years to come.

Recently, I personally had the pleasure of seeing how the Southern
California Tribal Chairman's Association has deployed innovative
wireless technologies to connect their Tribal government and members
through a virtual Tribal Digital Village. In addition, members of my
staff were guests of the Hopi Tribe on their reservation in Arizona last
summer and I enjoined learning that this past April the Hopi Tribal
Council authorized the creation of Hopi Telecommunications, Inc. They
hope to be the newest Tribally-owned and operated telecommunications
company, one of several options Tribes can consider in bringing services
to their communities. Another Tribal Nation that FCC staff has worked
closely with as Tribal officials have considered many service options
and plans over the past year is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Our responsibilities and interest in working with Indian Country extends
not only to Tribal government and business institutions, but also to the
citizens and residents of these lands. Earlier this week staff from the
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau held a consumer forum with the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to meet, learn and discuss the concerns of
community members regarding their services and the role of the FCC in
addressing inquiries from Tribal consumers. Staff also had an
opportunity to visit the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority
and Lakota Technologies, Inc. to see how they have leveraged Tribal
mandates, federal programs and entrepreneurial zeal to provide not just
service, but jobs and real economic opportunities to their people. This
commitment to come to Indian Country provides a valuable learning
experience for Commission staff.

Over the past few years, Commissioners and FCC staff have traveled from
the Alaska villages to the Great Basin, from the Southwest Canyons and
Mesas to the Plateaus of the Northwest. We have taken the FCC on the
road and as we come again here to the Great Plains we are listening and
learning. During this same time, we have engaged in more consultation on
FCC regulatory matters and spent more time in Indian Country than ever
before. I am pleased to say that we are seeing the benefits of these
efforts -- through greater Tribal input and collaboration than ever
before. I thank you for your hospitality and for your insight.

Earlier this year we received an honor for our efforts to listen to what
you have to say. It came from the national Tribal organization with
which we have perhaps coordinated the longest, NCAI. In February, the
NCAI honored us with their Leadership Award "for demonstrating exemplary
commitment to the honorable exercise of the government-to-government
relationship through meaningful outreach and consultation with Indian
Tribes."

I wish to recognize that the First Vice-President of NCAI, Council
Member Joe Garcia of San Juan Pueblo and NCAI Telecommunications
Associate Adam Bailey are here with us today. This award is a
distinction that we will strive to live up to in every part of our work
at the Commission. Indian Country is our partner and we will continue to
listen and learn as we ensure that all Americans, including American
Indians and Alaska Natives, have access to the telecommunications
infrastructures of this great nation.

In our consultations and Tribal outreach efforts we have learned that
consultation does not end with the conclusion of any one conversation,
but rather it is an open, enduring discourse on how a federal agency and
Tribal governments can continually work together -- through issues and
challenges, sharing information and assisting each other to find
meaningful answers and achieve common objectives. We are happy to be
here again in the Great Plains working together, in the spirit of our
unique relationship. Through this mutually respectful trust
relationship, we know that we can and will achieve our critical
objectives.

I'm honored to be with you this evening. Thank you.

\- FCC -