Connecting in More Ways Than One. Meet the team and learn the story behind bringing modern, reliable communications infrastructure to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Our Story. Founding: First in the Nation. Telephone Authority began its formal organizational history in when the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe purchased a privately owned telephone company. Chairman Frank Ducheneaux, Sr.
In the decades since, eight other tribes have started their own telecommunication companies β speaking to the power for C. At that time telephone service was multi-party and always at the mercy of Mother Nature, and most rural folks throughout the reservation did not have phone service. These privately-owned systems then linked into the main system that was located in Eagle Butte. In another first, Tribal and Telco management became the first tribe to borrow from the Rural Electrification Administration REA β a government program designed to finance electric and telephone systems.
Cheyenne River Telephone took advantage of this program and built single party buried copper telephone service throughout the reservation. This project was completed in The REA funding not only provided new modern telephone plant and switching equipment, but also allowed a new headquarter building to be constructed in Eagle Butte.
The company employed new young technicians and purchased new service vehicles and construction equipment, modernizing the company in just a few short years. Through 50 plus years of progression, the company has worked hard to provide the most modern state of the art telecommunications services available to its customers.
In , the company upgraded all five 5 telephone exchanges to new Nortel Digital Switches to be Y2K compliant. Over miles of fiber optic cable has been installed as a backbone to haul local and long-distance traffic throughout the service area.
