 - The Wyoming Business Council has awarded the Northern Arapaho Tribe a $50,000 Business Ready Community Planning Grant to complete a Wind River Indian Reservation Data Center Feasibility Study.){kind=link}
(Ethete, WY) – The Wyoming Business Council has awarded the Northern Arapaho Tribe a $50,000 Business Ready Community Planning Grant to complete a Wind River Reservation Data Center Feasibility Study.
The grant agreement indicates that the Tribe – through its enterprise, Northern Arapaho Tribal Industries – will develop a strategic plan for the creation of a “large, climate-controlled data center” on the Wind River Reservation, “to house and traffic the critical applications and data of companies and corporations.”
Needs assessment
The project summary attached to the grant agreement includes a needs assessment, which notes that the reservation “is challenged by high poverty and unemployment, low incomes, and a lack of jobs and resources.”
“Additionally, there is very little private sector activity on the reservation, and traditional employment sectors such as government, mining and agriculture sectors have been declining,” the summary states. “Based on these items, there is a need for economic diversification in the area.”
The goal of the feasibility study is to “understand what the potential is for a data center and to gauge the marketability, size and scale for this project in the community,” the summary says.
The study will address the “real and perceived strengths and weaknesses” of NATI’s Wind River Internet company; analyze adequate connectivity, speeds and bandwidth; identify potential leaders in the tribal data center market; identify potential major partners, including other tribes; analyze the potential cost to build and manage a data center; determine a potential carbon neutral energy matrix; and determine potential funders, according to the summary.
The summary says the NAT will provide a $17,000 cash match for the grant, bringing the total project cost to $67,000.
Eligibility
During a January meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations, WBC Chief Executive Officer Josh Dorrell noted that tribal entities weren’t eligible for BRC funding until 2022, when the program statutes were updated to be more inclusive.
“In 2025, that legislation led to a planning grant that the NAT is utilizing to look at data center feasibility,” Dorrell said, calling the BRC update an “important change” that is likely to draw additional applications from tribal entities in the future “as that begins to be more commonplace.”
“We’re hopeful (that) more will occur because of this change,” Dorrell said. “To us, it’s an exciting door opening to be able to work with more entities.”