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It took four tries, but a Pacific Dataport satellite finally blasted off from a SpaceX launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL Sunday night.
Pacific Dataport hopes to serve tribes in remote parts of Alaska, where broadband service has been unavailable or cost prohibitive.
For three days, the flight was delayed due to the elements and technical issues. But on Sunday, a rocket called Falcon Heavy successfully carried the satellite into space.
Brian Murkowski, a spokesperson for Pacific Dataport, says the Aurora 4A will be a game changer.
“Remote communities will have effectively the same capabilities and services that, that you would get in Seattle or San Francisco or L.A. And furthermore, it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. It will be competitive.”
The Aurora 4A is positioned higher above the earth and looks down directly on Alaska – which provides some new options for broadband and cell service customers.
Pacific Dataport says Aurora 4A is the first of its kind – a “micro” geostationary satellite, smaller in size but with advanced technology that gives it more data capacity.
In the days leading up to the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), Yurok Tribal leaders will be participating in a series of events starting Tuesday, including candle light vigils, testimonies, a flower drop, and more at the California State Capitol to elevate tribally led efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis.
Watch the vigil live starting at 8:30am PT
A couple of public health studies are trying to prevent childhood obesity in tribal communities.
Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports on their approaches in part two of our special feature.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health launched a study to see if providing water and educating parents would help prevent early childhood obesity.
Every week, home health coaches talked with the moms about sugary beverages, breastfeeding, and other nutritional topics. Some families also received home deliveries of water.
Leonela Nelson is one of the home health coaches.
She says one of the main challenges mothers brought up was how their moms spoiled their babies.
“There was a lot of conversation along of like how to have these conversations with your parents in a respectful way of, you know what, Like this is my child. I want to I want them to be healthy.”
The results of the Johns Hopkins study were striking.
The children of parents who received water and the teaching had a lower body mass index.
Rontel Hale, a participant, says she can see improvement in her son due to the study.
“Doing these little lessons. It’s a lot of help. And it also helps not just you, but also helps your little ones.”
Other groups also have looked into water-based solutions.
A few years ago, the Notah Begay the third foundation launched the Water First Learning Communities.
It was a cohort of eight Native organizations focused on increasing water consumption.
One group from the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico did a school water challenge to encourage kids to drink fruit-infused water.
Another group – the Tamaya Wellness Center in the Santa Ana pueblo – found signs were the solution.
“It’s really cool to see that they have like the sign that said, no sugary sweetened beverages allowed in their center because then we’re like, oh, like that that did that has made an impact.”
That’s Simone Duran with the foundation.
Rolling out these projects may be slow, but she believes they have a ripple effect on the community.
“They are more willing to kind of make small steps, small changes. It’s not going to happen overnight where the entire community is drinking water.”
Hale has already shared her experience with her sister so her kids can continue to grow healthy and strong, too.
“You still need that support of going to somebody. And that’s where I would give her some of the lessons that were given to me.”
The researchers are expanding their studies and plan to take them beyond the Southwest reservations.
This story was supported by The Water Desk, an initiative from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. Listen or read part one.
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