Current Topics in
Museum Studies:
Issues
in Native American Representation
Larry J. Zimmerman
IUPUI Department of Anthropology
The web is an amazing place to find information. It is much more fluid than "hard copy" printed media, but every bit as useful. Its fluidity is reflected in the number of web sites that get added or disappear every day. People often complain about this, but it's not all that different from books, journals or magazines going out of print. It's just more difficult to find dead and gone web sites! Others complain that "the web just has junk on it" or that the material on web sites is not peer reviewed and therefore not as good as that in other print sources. Look in any library. There you'll find lots of "junk" too, and lots that is not peer reviewed.
About Using
and Evaluating Web Sites with Native American Content
What it all boils down to is that you have to learn how to use the web efficiently and how to evaluate materials. There are lots of different ways to do this. Here are a few suggestions or questions you might ask:
Who has prepared the site? Is any author information available on the web or on links from it? Was it prepared as the "official" web site of an "official" organization, such as a tribe's web page or that of an organization dealing with some American Indian subject matter? If so, the information will likely have been approved by the organization, so should be somewhat accurate.
Is the author of materials knowledgeable about the subject? How is that reflected in the web site? Use some caution here. Material can seem very authoritative when it is down "in black and white" or when the presentation is "slick." Evaluate the material itself. Are sources given? Is it well written, spell checked and grammatically correct (this is not a sole indicator of quality by any means, but it does show a level of care or concern with quality!).
Why was the site developed? Is it a personal or "fun" site? If so, it may be less valid in terms of accuracy of materials. Is the site an academic site? If so, it may contain a great deal of valid and useful information, some of it peer reviewed.
For this class, who controls the web site? Is the site developed for or by American Indians or Native peoples? This has nothing to do with authenticity or validity of information. Rather, it has to do with the perspective of the site.
Does the site present issues? If a site presents issues such as that related to Leonard Peltier, sports mascots, or regarding cultural sovereignty, it may present biased information. This does not mean that the information is inaccurate; rather, it may simply be one-sided. Use some caution.
Again, these are certainly not all the questions you can or should ask about each web site you look at, but these questions may give you an indication of the quality of material. You may wish to read about an number of other issues surrounding the uses of the new technologies by American Indians. If so, go to Cyber Survival: Extensions of American Indian Ethnicity Using the World Wide Web or Cyberspace Smoke Signals: New Technologies and Native American Ethnicity. You'll find that these essays are slightly dated, but they raise important issues.
Indexed Web Sites
These sites are a sampling of major American Indian and Native peoples web indexes. All were working at the time this page was put on the class web site. The range of web sites listed on these indexes will surprise you! Most contain of hundreds of links to sites all over the world. You can usually get an idea of the structure of the index by examining the front page of the site. Look around the site and explore it a bit to get a feel for what types of links are there. If you are looking for a particular term on the page, use your browser's Find function to search the term (the Find function is under the Edit drop-down menu on most browsers).
A librarian at the University of Pittsburgh, Lisa Mitten (Mohawk), has compiled a substantial index of web sites that is especially strong on links to sites about the arts. Several source rate this site as the best of Native American Resource sites.
A web site about Indians, for Indians, this site has a wide range of materials and categories. Look at the menu bar at the bottom of the page. Here you'll also find current news from Indian country.
Divided by subject areas, geographic regions, nations/peoples, with growing areas in literature, languages, journals, organizations and bibliographies, this site is rapidly growing.
Bill Henderson's web site has a wide range of international indigenous issues, but also has a cross-Canada information source for Native peoples, but with information regarding aboriginal peoples across the Americas and with links to other indigenous sites worldwide. Good maps of Canada Reserves, copies of treaties, etc.
NativeTech is a well presented, well organized and useful educational web site covering topics of Native American technology and emphasizes the Eastern Woodlands region. The web site is organized into categories of Beadwork, Birds & Feathers, Clay & Pottery, Leather & Clothes, Metalwork, Plants & Trees, Porcupine Quills, Stonework & Tools, and Weaving & Cordage. It provides simple instructional information about how some of these materials are used by Natives a more importantly, detailed background on the history and development of these kinds of Native technologies, showing both change and continuity from pre-contact times to the present.