The Institutional Development of Indigenous Broadband Infrastructure in Canada and the United States: Two Paths to "Digital Self-Determination"

Digital self-determination and indigenous community development Communication policies play an important role in shaping broader freedoms rights and community development Broadband infrastructure can be framed as a component of indigenous self-determination Mignone Henley 2009 The general consensus among government academics and industry commentators is that broadband infrastructure plays an important role in community development see for example Alexander Adamson Daborn Houston Tootoo 2009 Benkler writes that high capacity networks are seen as strategic infrastructure intended to contribute to high and sustainable economic growth and to core aspects of human development Benkler 2010 p 11 see also Matear 2002 O'[Donnell Susan Smith et al 2010a).5 Furthermore indigenous communities can access unique benefits from broadband infrastructure Falconer David points to the role of broadband in sharing culturally