Native American technology access: the Gates Foundation in Four Corners

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Native American Access to Technology Program (NAATP) was designed to provide computer and Internet access to Native peoples in the Four Corners area of the USA. Through this multi‐year effort, complex packages of hardware, software, installation and training have been made available to 43 tribes in 161 settings. An intensive, collaborative process resulted in a package carefully designed to fit tribal interests, circumstances and political arrangements, including multimedia (graphics‐intensive) equipment, language preservation software, and satellite connections to the Internet as necessary. This interim assessment concludes that the program has substantially increased tribal access to computing and information and has often fostered creative use of the technologies. Deeply embedded economic and political realities and their legacies remain, however, with substantial immediate and long‐term consequences.