Virtual Tribal Voices:
Native American Literary Resources on the Web
Anna Christiansen
Idaho State University
As the Web increasingly becomes the tool of first choice for researchers,
so too do analyses of web sites become pivotal in determining
what online materials are currently available and how they can
be used. In using web resources for conducting research, one
must keep in mind how electronic sources differ from print ones.
Researchers must understand the transitory quality of web sites:
the information as well as graphic interface of a source may change
for a variety of reasons such as author preference, timeliness
of information, even administrative changes. Also, while the
lack of "officers" on the information highway suggests
a freedom from virtual hegemony through an anonymous leveling
of power, the absence of any kind of peer review invites a kind
of "buyers beware" approach to materials found on the
Web. Keeping all of this in mind, I review two web sites significantly
contributing to the online study of Native American literature.
In narrowing the scope of this review to two sites, I am not
suggesting that Native American literature is poorly represented
on the Web. Indeed, there are many electronic sources on NA fiction,
many of them commercial as well as non-commercial sites. The
two sources I index here serve as fairly comprehensive, for the
most part non-commercial sites for the study of Native American
literary texts on the Web.
Storytellers Native American Authors Online
http://hanksville.phast.umass.edu/poems/poets/index.cgi
Karen Strom constructs and maintains this site which is still
very much in process, although conspicuously (to my relief) without
the "Under Construction" signs. Even with a two-week
span between my initial perusal of the site and when I first began
to write this part of the review, Strom had added two more author
pages. As architect of this site, Strom cites her aim as wanting
to "make the writing of modern Native American authors, particularly
the poets, both more visible and more widely available."
Listed on the main page by name, most of the writers' pages have
been constructed with their cooperation and through collaboration
with Strom. She notes that the authors approve the sites before
they go public, edit their pages, contribute material, etc. An
example of a collaborative effort between Strom and a Native American
author is Luci Tapahonso's page listing her personal as well as
academic biography, her writing available online, writing featured
in print sources and in translation, as well as interviews/papers/media
presentations on her work. Most pages also include a photo of
the highlighted writer or examples of her/his artwork as well
as external links to Amazon.com so that researchers can order
the writer's work. (A small percentage of the sale reverts back
to the author if books are purchased this way.)
When possible, Strom provides outside links to author-maintained
web sites or 'admirer' pages about authors, sites she deems 'unofficial'
because they were not constructed with the writer's input. Such
pages Strom indexes only if they contain substantial information
and they are not, for the most part, as extensive in scope as
the collaborative efforts between Strom and the writer; some of
the links even failed to work. While each author page Strom has
constructed so far is, indeed, fairly comprehensive, I emailed
her to ask why some Native American writers are conspicuously
missing from her site. She responded, indicating that she is
still in the process of making contact with writers as well as
working collaboratively to construct new sites. She points out
that "it takes much longer to develop a site and obtain approval
when the person is not online and doesn't feel the project is
important."
Strom also provides an internal link to a calendar detailing
readings and appearances of the authors indexed at her site.
Some of her external links connect to book reviews, early 20th-century
Native American authors (etexts from the University of Virginia
site and the Internet Public Library), traditional storytelling
(which she notes does not translate well online) and related sites.
That her collection of author pages is not as comprehensive as,
say, the Internet Public Library's collection would be the only
warning I have for potential researchers. For now, Strom's site
manages to provide a wealth of information on, perhaps, a select
group of Native American writers, but as she continues to build
the site the seemingly limited collection will no doubt grow.
Native American Authors
http://www.ipl.org/ref/native/
Developed through a course at the University of Michigan, this
collection is a part of the Internet Public Library (IPL) and
is the largest collection of Native American authors online.
Five graduate students researched approximately 400 authors, 700
books, and 200 URLs, contacting nearly 100 Native American authors
and other members of the Native American community for guidance.
In determining whom to include, researchers limited their scope
to the Indians of North America, those working with the written
word, and who are "native by bloodlines rather than federal
tribal recognition."
Literary researchers can look up an author at this site by name,
title of a work, or tribe-all of which function as internal links
in a seemingly vast maze of information. For example, say I go
to the author index and look up Sherman Alexie. His page features
a paragraph of personal information, awards/honors he has achieved,
external links by or about him complete with URL and description
of the site, as well as books he has published. The internal
links about his tribal affiliation connect me to links for other
writers from the same tribes. The book listings include comprehensive
publication information, including a brief description and ISBN,
and if the book title acts as a link, it directs you to external
online sources about that particular work.
Unlike Strom's site, the biographical information on each writer
is rather brief. This site, however, makes up in volume what
it lacks in detail. A list, complete with descriptions, of other
Native American literary sites is also available so researchers
starting with this site can link to other relevant online sources.
Because the IPL site is so large, researchers are likely to come
across "extinct" external links in their navigating
and should, when possible, notify the webmaster when links no
longer function. The vastness of this site attests to the literary
presence of Native authors and suggests volumes about the richness
of their work.
Other Links:
Indigenous Peoples' Literature
http://www.indians.org/natlit.htm
This site used to be part of the NativeWeb project but has since
become its own entity. Organized by site map, it proves difficult
to manuever. There are few resources about contemporary Native
American writers and more on traditional practices of indigenous
world citizens. I was also bothered by the feel-good rhetoric
at this site (e.g., "For as
different as we all may seem, When details are compared, We are
all one, and the same").
The North American Native Authors Catalog
http://nativeauthors.com/
While the goals of this site seem lofty (the promotion of Native
American literature as well as raising general awareness about
Indian issues), the sponsor of this site, Greenfield Review Press,
has managed to make it purely commercial. Supplementary material
is provided at this site only to help sell books. It is
a good site for ordering NA resources.
NativeLit-L Homepage
http://www.uwm.edu/~mwilson/lit.htm
I've seen more than one site for the NativeLit list, one at UWM
and one at Cornell. In following the subscription directions
at the NativeLit-L Homepage, I was unable to subscribe to the
discussion list on Native American literature, even though the
FAQ says it is unmoderated and no approval is necessary to subscribe.
I've also emailed Michael Wilson, owner of the homepage and the
list, twice for assistance and received no reply. The list would
be a valuable resource if scholars are somehow able to subscribe
to it. For now, this link provides faulty directions on how to
subscribe to the list as well as a FAQ on the list.
The two sites extensively reviewed here serve as the strongest
online resources for the researcher interested in the literatures
of Native America. While I couldn't also favorably review the
other sites listed here, their very presence on the Web attests
to the visibility and cogency of American Indian arts. In tandem,
all of these sites do indeed provide forums for Native American
tribal voices. The researcher just needs to make sure she is
listening.
© 2004 ROCKY MOUNTAIN MODERN LANGUAGE
ASSOCIATION |