Tribal Broadband Bootcamp: A Foundation for Digital Equity in Indian Country

Hotspot is a series of articles drawn from interviews with people across the digital equity and inclusion ecosystem. For this issue, we sat down with Christopher Mitchell, co-founder of Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, to talk about what it is, how it started, and where it's going.

Going Behind the Scenes

This June marks the fifth anniversary of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp — an immersive training program that's been quietly doing important capacity-building work in Indian Country. 

We’d been looking for an opportunity to sponsor some of the Institute of Local Self Reliance’s work and when everything lined up to sponsor the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, we jumped in. Following TBB 20 (as it was called), we wanted to learn more about what’s next. So we sat down with Christopher Mitchell —Tribal Broadband Bootcamp co-founder and Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance — to get the story.

What Is Tribal Broadband Bootcamp?

The short version: It's a three-day, hands-on training experience for people working in or alongside tribal communities to build and run their own internet networks. But that doesn't really capture it.

"In some ways, it's a 3-day, fun-filled summer camp for adults," Mitchell told us. And honestly, that framing makes a lot more sense once you understand what actually happens there. Participants splice real fiber. They troubleshoot broken networks. They work with live equipment on fully operational and test fiber and wireless networks. There are very few slideshows in classrooms. There is a lot of getting your hands on equipment.

The bootcamp is organized around the idea that people learn best by doing, and that confidence matters as much as knowledge. As Mitchell puts it: "A little bit of knowledge and a lot of confidence." The goal isn't to certify anyone as a fiber technician in three days. It's to help people see how the pieces fit together — and to feel supported, seen, and like they belong in this space.

In Inspired Idea

Like a lot of good ideas, the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp wasn't really planned — it evolved. Mitchell and his co-founder Matt Rantanen were both attending an event organized by the Internet Society in Waimānalo, Hawaii, where participants were actively building a wireless network together. They were inspired, but thought of a few tweaks they would make to run something similar in Indian Country.

Matt is the Director of Technology for the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) and Director of the Tribal Digital Village (TDVNet) Network/Initiative that was started in 2001 designing and deploying wireless networking to support the tribal communities of Southern California. Of Finnish, Norwegian, and Cree (First Nations) descent, Matt has been described by his peers as a “Cyber Warrior for Tribal Broadband” and is considered an expert on community/Tribal broadband networking.

"With their permission, we took the inspiration," Mitchell said, "They actually funded the first Tribal Wireless Bootcamp."

That first event happened in the summer of 2021, on Matt Rantanen's ranch in Southern California. It was hot — 101 degrees for three days straight. The focus was wireless networks, specifically the 2.5 GHz spectrum that was newly available to many tribes. Mitchell and Rantanen didn't show up as the experts. They showed up as facilitators, creating a space where participants could share what they already knew and learn from each other.

Blown Away by the Outcome

At the end of that first bootcamp, people were emotional. Tired, inspired, and connected in a way that hadn't existed before. Mitchell talks about it like it still surprises him.

"At the end, we had this emotional release. People just reported feeling seen, and they felt like they had new energy, and they made new friends — people they could rely on and get answers to questions from."

After that, Mitchell and Rantanen asked themselves: was that a fluke? They decided to find out. Schmidt Futures stepped in with funding to run several more, and the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp was officially off and running.

Who Shows Up?

This might be one of our favorite things about the bootcamp — the range of people who attend. Lawyers. Grant writers. Tower climbers. Outside plant technicians. People who work in call centers and have never seen what happens in the field. All levels, all roles, are all welcome.

Even tribal leadership has attended — something that gave Mitchell and Rantanen a little pause at first. Tribal politics are real. Some tribes that share borders have complicated histories with each other. The last thing the organizers wanted was for those tensions to muddy the waters at the bootcamps..

"Matt and I originally — because we're kind of ground-up people — thought, we don't need anyone coming in and acting like they’re above everything, “ Mitchell told us. They think everyone deserves respect, but were concerned.

It turned out to be a non-issue. The tribal leaders who've attended have been, according to Mitchell, “Terrific.”

Delivering as Designed

The gender breakdown of attendees has been another interesting dimension. Telecom has historically skewed heavily male in the field, with more women working in call centers and network operations centers than doing work outside of the plant. That's changing — Mitchell notes that women who've served in the military often come back with highly relevant skills and a comfort level with fieldwork. But a lot of women in tribal broadband roles have simply never had the chance to see the physical side of network building up close.

That's where a story from the Tohono O'odham Nation comes in. A group of women who worked in the call center and network operations center attended a bootcamp — and had never really seen what the field technicians did. When the fiber splicing station was set up, they went through it. Then, on the second day, something clicked.

"I noticed that on the second day, during a break, one of the women who had gone through it originally was teaching all the others how to do it," Mitchell said. "For us, that was just — that's exactly what we're looking for."

There's also a moment Mitchell describes that captures why the demystifying piece matters so much. A participant, after working through one of the day's exercises, made a connection he'd been missing for a year: "Last year, I was told to do all this IT stuff, and I had to write down all these numbers and periods, and I didn't know what it was. And now I know what an IP address is, and what I was doing, and what role it played."

That's the bootcamp doing exactly what it was designed to do.

What's Been Built — Year Over Year

At Rantanen's ranch, there’s now more than a quarter mile of fiber in the ground. There are utility poles. Conduit runs. A wireless tower. A fully operational test network that participants can build on, break, and troubleshoot. It’s all been donated and assembled piece by piece over five years. When the bootcamp travels to tribal lands, participants often get to see — and interact with — active, real-world projects.

Extensive Reach

Since 2021, the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp has run more than 20 events and worked with people from over 80 Tribes and First Nations across North America. The curriculum has expanded too — fiber optic training was added in 2022, and the agenda is adjusted for each event based on who's coming and what they need.

The Federal Landscape Changed Everything — and Then Got Complicated

Enacted at the end of December, 2020, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program created real momentum. More than 100 tribes were able to start building their own networks — something Mitchell and Rantanen had dreamed about in 2019. But today, the funding picture is far from secure.

The Digital Equity Act, which had dedicated resources for Indian Country, produced just one grant before being halted. 

Mitchell doesn't sugarcoat the situation, "Networks that are being built are going to struggle to be financially viable. And so if you're operating at a deficit, then it's even harder to find funds for the devices and the training that is needed to make it affordable."

He puts the remaining infrastructure need across the 575 federally recognized tribes at more than ten billion dollars — and that's before even getting to the digital equity layer on top of it. There's a long road ahead.

How is the Bootcamp Supported?

Rantanen and Mitchell are proud of the fact that the Bootcamp has never run on a single funder or a single institution — it's been a coalition effort from the start, and that's a big part of why it's lasted. Democracy Fund and Calix have been core, consistent partners. Schmidt Futures provided the early funding that got the program off the ground. Merit Network helped push the curriculum toward fiber training. Public Knowledge and California TURN have sent experts to share their knowledge. Equipment has come in from companies who wanted to support the mission in a tangible way.

And yes — 35 Mile Foundation is now proud to be among those supporters. We believe in what this program is doing, and being part of it felt like a natural extension of our own work in digital equity. 

Each bootcamp runs between $70,000 and $80,000 for a group of 45 to 60 participants, covering flights, ground transportation, lodging, and all meals. The commitment to making attendance genuinely free and logistically easy is something we really respect about how they run these events.

A "Cool Club" That's Grown Into Something Bigger

"Boot camps are great, and we think they're essential," Mitchell said. "But there are other steps that we're working on."

That sense of forward momentum is grounded in five years of showing up, adding over time, iterating, and building a community of organizations and individuals who genuinely want to do more than what's expected. 

Mitchell is characteristically self-deprecating about how it all came together, "Matt and I like to take all of the credit and reserve none for anyone else," he said with a laugh, "but it is definitely a case of — we got a cool club going of people that pitch in, help out, organizations that are really committed to going beyond what they were set up to do."

That club now has a formal home. The team has launched a nonprofit organization called Waskawiwin to anchor the bootcamp and grow beyond it. The bootcamps will keep running — upcoming events include Bristol Bay Native Association in Alaska (April 2026), Hoopa Valley Tribe in California (August 2026), and the Seminole Tribe (January 2027). The five-year anniversary is coming up in June 2026.

Tribal Exchange: The Next Big Idea

Waskawiwin's ambitions extend well beyond the bootcamp model. The next major initiative on the horizon is something Mitchell calls a “tribal exchange.” The idea is straightforward but potentially very powerful: a tribe that's in the early stages of setting up a network could send team members to spend several days embedded with an existing tribal network — shadowing their operations, watching how they handle questions and problems, and absorbing the kind of institutional knowledge that you can't get from a three-day training event.   

It goes both ways, too. Rather than sending people out, a tribe could bring an expert in — someone who could help them work through specific challenges they're facing. Either way, the goal is the same: closing the gap between a tribe that's figuring things out and one that's already done it.

It's a natural next step for a program that has always been less about instruction and more about connection.

Why We C0-sponsored a Tribal Broadband Bootcamp

Honestly, it wasn't a hard call. Digital equity in tribal communities is one of the most urgent and under-resourced challenges in our field, and the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp is doing something real about it — one hands-on, community-connecting event at a time. And they’re ready and eager to do more. We're proud to be part of it.

Programs like the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp are the kind of community-led, capacity-building work that makes lasting change possible. As it enters its fifth year, and looks to expand its impact, we hope other digital equity organizations will join us in getting behind it.

How You Can Get Involved

If you're a digital equity organization that aligns with the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp mission, here's how to plug in:

Sponsor a Bootcamp — like we did: Financial support keeps these events free for participants. Reach out at info@tribalbroadbandbootcamp.org.

Share Resources: The team puts together a custom 130-page printed resource book for every attendee, packed with QR codes and references. If your organization has something that belongs in it, they want to hear from you.

Donate Equipment: The working infrastructure at Rantanen's ranch has been built almost entirely through donations. There's always more to build.

Share Your Expertise: If your team has knowledge to share — policy, technology, digital equity programming — consider partnering with Waskawiwin. Their team is always looking for people who can contribute to the curriculum.

You can find them at TribalBroadbandBootcamp.org, on LinkedIn and Instagram, or by emailing info@tribalbroadbandbootcamp.org.