Indians on the Internet – selected Native American Web sites

Pages443-449
Date01 October 2003
Published date01 October 2003
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/02640470310499812
AuthorLisa Mitten
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Library & information science
Indians on the Internet
± selected Native
American Web sites
Lisa Mitten
Introduction
Nearly eight years ago, I wrote an article for
MultiCultural Review on the presence of
Indians on the Internet (Mitten, 1995).
Looking back at that article nearly a decade
later, I am struck by the tone of wonder in
that article written during those early days of
the World Wide Web, and astounded at the
exponential growth of both the technology
and the presence of Native peoples on the
Internet since then.
That first article described how I found
myself creating my Web pages (Native
American Sites)[1] while a librarian at the
University of Pittsburgh. At the time of the
article, my Web page was only a few months
old, and consisted of one alphabetical list of
links to 33 Web pages created by a variety of
Native tribes and organizations. Now, a rough
count reveals links to 192 separate tribal links
on just the Native Nations page alone. Since
that initial Web page, I have divided my
original page into 11 sub-pages, and there
could easily be further divisions. Suffice it to
say that Indians have embraced the Internet
and the opportunity to tell the world who we
are on our own terms in a big way.
Native American Sites has been oriented
from the outset to providing a clearing-house
for Native people to network and find other
Indians on the Internet. Consequently, the
focus has been on Web pages created by
Indians, rather than about them, and with the
interests and needs of Indian people in mind.
Naturally, this has not precluded non-Indians
from using Native American sites, and many
of the inquiries I get as a result of my Web site
are from non-Indians looking for information
about ``Indians''. The majority of these
questions are from school kids struggling with
(usually vague) class assignments, or from
adults doing genealogy.
This article will survey some of the Internet
highlights of Native Web sites, from my
perspective. As with any other category of
Web pages, many sites have come and gone;
others have been around since the beginning.
Determining ``authentic'' Web sites is a tricky
exercise, perhaps more so with Indian Web
sites than with those in other categories.
Issues of identity, politics, religion, culture,
language, and enrollment can come into play
in looking at Indian Web sites, as they can in
just about every other area of Native
American life today. The main criterion for
The author
Lisa Mitten is Social Sciences Subject Editor,
CHOICE
Magazine
, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
Keywords
Culture (sociology), Worldwide web, Ethnic minorities,
Cultural diversity, Native Americans
Abstract
Native Americans made an early appearance on the
Internet in 1994. The number of Indian-run Web sites
about Native American issues, histories and cultures
continues to expand. Web sites are created and
maintained by Indian tribes, organizations and
individuals, and may be directed at tribal members, the
non-Indian public, or both. Major categories of Indian
Web sites include tribes, organizations, education, media,
businesses, music and languages. This article looks at 120
selected Web sites on these topics.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
443
The Electronic Library
Volume 21 .Number 5 .2003 .pp. 443-449
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470310499812

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