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Without reliable internet, it’s tough for veterans to apply for and access financial and health benefits, including mental care.
But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a Phoenix-based telehealth company and the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services are partnering to help better equip those living on remote tribal lands.
So far, Janice Talas-Denny (Hopi) with Televada has so far delivered 16 military-grade kits containing Starlink satellite internet systems – at no-cost – to over a dozen tribes across Arizona beginning this year in Parker.
“If I can do this, anyone can do this.”
Her latest stop, New Pascua, is just on the outskirts of Tucson, Ariz.
“It’s a hot day today. We don’t want to be out here too long.”
Fortunately, it takes only ten minutes, she says, for the satellite hookup once they figure out which direction is north.
Along with her is Dylan Dalzotto on behalf of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services.
“Let’s start with 50, see where it goes and here we are rather quickly, excited to get the rest of them out there and a big roadblock for a lot of vets is the internet connectivity.”
Even for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
“And a lot of times, they’re not.”
Carmen Rivera is the tribe’s veterans benefits counselor and often travels to the Mexico border, meeting with tribal members living off-grid.
“And when you give them, you know, information, whether it be off this system, or you give it to them in paper, they like that.”
U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee/R-OK).
U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee/R-OK) is facing criticism for an exchange during a recent hearing on federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He’s accused of racial stereotyping based on looks.
Correspondent Matt Laslo has the story from Washington.
Sen. Mullin is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, but that doesn’t give him a pass with tribal leaders.
During a recent hearing over whether or not to recognize the Lumbee, Mullin offended many with his exchange with Principal Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which referring to the Lumbee packing the hearing room.
“You can’t look over there and say they’re not Native. I mean, turn around and look — and you’re telling me they’re not Native?”
Chief Hicks: “I’ve seen the crowd”
Mullin: “Okay. And you’re saying that that’s not Native faces?”
Hicks: “That’s not for me to determine. That’s for the [Department of Interior’s Office of Federal Acknowledgment] (OFA) process…”
Mullin: “No, but we are determining it.”
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) has garnered praise across Indian Country for calling Mullin out.
“It’s just like my frustration with this administration giving authority to [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] (ICE) to pull anybody over just because they have brown skin and claim that they’re undocumented somehow. It’s wrong, and I don’t want to be put in a position like that.”
Mullin brushes the criticism aside.
“I don’t care if I’m doing what is right. The Lumbees deserve to be recognized.”
A 2022 Congressional Budget Office study estimated it would cost just over $90 million a year to recognize the Lumbee.
Mullin says concerns raised by other tribes over the cost of enrolling the Lumbee coupled with debates over gaming are misguided.
“I’m serious. It doesn’t make any sense. And if you’re going to start talking about gaming — which most of these arguments are about, is gaming — shame on you, because now you’re putting profit over Native people.”
While North Carolina’s two Republican senators are pushing the Lumbee Fairness Act, which would recognize the tribe federally.
Sen. Cortez Masto says that’s a decision best left up to nonpartisan officials within the Interior Department.
“I am not equipped to make that determination, and that’s why that was set up that way. It’s evidence-based. I rely on it, and I think I was very clear about it.”
President Donald Trump has promised the Lumbee federal recognition.
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