Page 31 - Winds Of Change Fall 2018

Mel and Madonna Yawakie
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serves this area really has no desire to make any improvements,” says Mel. “So it’s an opportunity for the tribe to do it themselves.”
TICOM is providing turnkey management of this multiphase project from the initial build-out of the ber-optic backbone into tribal communities and extending that service into the town of Riverton, Wyo., where the tribe has businesses.
Building relationships with tribal clients is key for Mel and Madonna. “Every time we have established a level of trust with tribes that have hired us,” he says. “We don’t take that for granted.”
Part of partnering with tribes is identifying technically skilled individuals. “We nd that within tribal communities there are people with technical skills that are underutilized,” says Madonna. “They have skills they’ve never been able to use. If you give us a person who’s willing to learn, they’re going to learn the skills necessary to manage and operate these systems.”
TICOM is proud to be project and culturally oriented. “We show results,” says Madonna. “And when we leave a project, we leave a good footprint.”
— George M. Spencer
Importantly, digital sovereignty
is a solid base for future growth.
“We’re providing services to tribes
that lay the foundation for eco-
nomic development for the next 50
years,” says Mel, Pueblo of Zuni,
who earned his electrical engineer-
ing degree at North Dakota State
University and also worked for US
nstruction Control Reps
West. “We design and build
broadband infrastructure that
creates a base for everything from e-commerce and improved health
Biologists
care to distance learning.”
Contract Specialists
TICOM offers services including
broadband system design, project
management, and nancial services, and a hard-earned understanding of the federal regulatory environment. The company has a track record of major successes, like designing and implementing the telecom wireless system for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation straddles North and South Dakota. “When we started, the wireless service was at 2.5G. Now it’s at 4G,” says Mel. “And there’s talk about rolling out 5G.”
Today one of their biggest projects is on the Wind River Reservation, for the Northern Arapahoe Tribe in Wyoming. “The communication company that
aises.org
ineers
COURTESY OF MADONNA YAWAKIE