The Net is a tool that will allow us to forge bonds between the Indian nations. The only thing we have right now that facilitates intertribal communication is the powwow circuit … It’s fine as far as it goes, but we need more.
Predictor: Short, Victoria Bracewell
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Glen Martin illuminates the issues surrounding the efforts of Native Americans to connect in cyberspace, quoting Victoria Bracewell Short, a Creek Indian, of the Native American Communications Council. Martin writes: ”In late 1994, [Eastern Band Cherokee Tracy] Miller, [Shoshone-Bannock Marc] Towersap, and three compatriots – Disney executive Dawn Jackson (who is Saginaw Chippewa), attorney Tamera Crites Shanker (Arapaho), and advertising creative director Victoria Bracewell Short (Creek) – incorporated as the nonprofit Native American Communications Council, and began work … They see computers and wire as the best and brightest chance of reestablishing tribal bonds that were sundered with the massacre at Wounded Knee, an event remembered as ending all organized Indian resistance in North America. ‘When we get together, what we talk about is power (not computers),’ says Short. ‘The Net is a tool that will allow us to forge bonds between the Indian nations. The only thing we have right now that facilitates intertribal communication is the powwow circuit (pantribal gatherings throughout the country, many open to the general public, that feature dances, food, handicrafts, and seminars). It’s fine as far as it goes, but we need more.’ The council’s goals are straightforward: to develop a Native-owned and operated telecommunications network that will provide Native Americans with easy access to information stored on the council’s server while simultaneously offering most Internet functions, including gopher, ftp, telnet, as well as a website. The council’s primary server will be linked to local servers on reservations, Alaskan Native villages, and urban Native service centers. Concomitantly, courses would be provided to local service centers to aid Natives in managing local nodes, navigating the Net, and creating Web home pages. ‘We also hope to launch an interactive service that will provide updated information on grant, job, and educational opportunities and legal and health issues,’ says Short … ‘The simple fact is that Natives need to be a significant presence on the Net, and we need to make that happen on our own terms,’ says Shanker, who acknowledges that the slippery nature of online data swapping makes any attempt to define and preserve fixed identities tricky in the extreme. ‘If we don’t define who we are on the Net, other people will do it for us,’ says Shanker. ‘And when that happens, part of who we are disappears.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Virtual Communities
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Internet Indian Wars: Native Americans Are Fighting to Connect the 550 Nations – in Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.12/martin_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney