SAN CARLOS APACHE TRIBE RECEIVES $14.1 MILLION LOAN FROM USDA
                                           Release No. 0291.97
                                                               
                                                               
                                   Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623
                                            jpetterson@usda.gov
                                       Clark Ray (202) 720-5579
                                                               


     WASHINGTON, August 28, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today
announced that the San Carlos Apache Telecommunications Utility, Inc.,
(SCATU) located in Peridot, AZ will receive a $14.1 million loan from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture to build and install a state of the art
telecommunications system for the residents of the San Carlos Apache
Reservation.

     SCATU will use the funds to provide improved, and in many cases
initial telecommunications service to approximately 7,300 reservation
residents.  The current telecommunications service is out of date and serves
only a portion of the Reservation, and only 28 percent of the households
subscribe to service.  The proposed system will serve all of the
Reservation, be all digital, one-party and will provide the population and
five preschools, one high school and two hospitals access to the Internet. 
The system will also be capable of providing broadband access for video
conferencing, distance learning, and telemedicine.  The loan is being made
available via USDA's Rural Utilities Service.

     "As we move into the 21st Century, the Clinton Administration and USDA
are committed to providing the type of telecommunications access required
for education, health care and economic development in a global digital
economy," said Glickman. "The residents of the San Carlos reservation will
now have the same access to the Information Superhighway as we have here in
the Nation's capital."  

     The San Carlos Tribe will be the fifth Native American tribe in the
nation to borrow money from USDA to build its own telecommunications system. 
Projects like this help close the gap between information haves and have
nots.   Nationally, 93.7 percent of Americans households have telephone
service, however, among rural Native Americans this figure drops to 50
percent.  "Rural Native Americans have the lowest percentage of telephone
subscribership of any identifiable group in the Nation, and this loan helps
address that problem head-on" said Glickman.

                                 
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