Pilot broadband grant

The Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service awarded Osage Nation $17.554 million under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants program (CFDA 10.855) on September 18, 2025, to establish broadband infrastructure serving unserved Native American households in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The award period runs through September 18, 2027.

The program supports telemedicine, distance learning, and related advanced technologies for rural residents. The source does not specify the scope of households to be served or the particular technologies deployed under this award. Osage Nation, a federally recognized tribal government headquartered in Pawhuska with approximately 45,000 citizens across 1.47 million acres of tribal lands in Oklahoma, operates as the recipient. The Nation's federal award portfolio centers on social services, infrastructure, environmental management, and tribal governance. Prior broadband infrastructure work by the Nation includes a $13.9 million Rural Utilities Service grant awarded September 7, 2022, that connected 3,158 unserved Native American households to fiber-to-the-home or fixed wireless service, completing September 7, 2024.