Hoopa Valley Tribe is Closing the Digital Divide

The Hoopa Valley Tribe has worked hard to connect its northwestern Californian community to high-speed internet despite the barriers to access, adoption and application that Tribal members face. Through Tribal initiatives, regional partnerships, and state and federal funding, the Hoopa Valley Tribe is bringing broadband services to this area which has had a lack of investment in connectivity. The Hoopa Valley Tribe–home to the Natinixwe or Hupa People–primarily resides on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation around the Trinity River in northwestern California. Over 3,300 people live on the reservation. The valley is 64 miles northeast of Eureka, California, and just south of the Yurok and Karuk Native American Reservations. Surrounded by mountainous, forested terrain, the 92,000-acre Hoopa Valley Reservation is the largest Indian reservation in the state of California. The region's rural and mountainous geography makes it challenging to build fixed broadband networks to homes on the reservation. Only 53 percent of Hoopa Valley's 1,030 households have a broadband internet subscription compared to the United States average of 85 percent connected households, according to Census data. Linnea Jackson, General Manager for the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District, stressed, "There's no wired fiber in this region yet, although there are three regional projects that are happening. Our only option for internet right now is a wireless backhaul.”


Hoopa Valley Tribe is Closing the Digital Divide