Broadband’s broken promise: How federal failures and funding fights keep Native and Black farmers offline

Broadband’s broken promise: How federal failures and funding fights keep Native and Black farmers offline

Kelsey Scott spotted it from her deck: a sudden lightning flash, then a flame. Lightning storms are common in rural Eagle Butte, South Dakota. When one rolled through in July, Scott had to act fast or the blaze would sweep across her 7,200-acre cattle ranch. But emergency response is complicated, Scott said, in this remote area of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Calling 911 was a game of “phone tag” with multiple dispatch centers, one of …