Tribal leaders are concerned about how few American Indian tribes have won broadband stimulus grants. Native Americans have a meeting at the U.S. Department of Agriculture scheduled for Tuesday to discuss possible changes in the Rural Utilities Service's Broadband Infrastructure Program. About 25 tribes applied for BIP money in the first of two rounds and more than 60 applications mentioned service to native areas, officials of the Native American Broadband Association said. Only one was successful: the Rivada SeaLion project, which received a $25.3 million grant from the RUS to provide wireless high-speed broadband to 53 communities in southwestern Alaska. nnThe RUS tried to make changes to the BIP program for the second round to help Native groups, but the notice of funding availability for the second funding round "confused the issue" instead of clarifying it, said Harold Pruner, the broadband association's chairman. "It looks they have further handicapped us or made the situation worse." Pruner said some tribes reported being rejected because they weren't considered remote enough to justify funding. "Some people who have applied have not been told whether they were rejected or not," he said. "We have tribes saying, 'I don't know whether to reapply for what I planned for in the first round, because I don't know whether I won or not.'"
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