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Using the Internet to strengthen the Indigenous nations of the Americas

Authors:Susan O'Donnell and Guillermo Delgado-P.

http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9512/0187.html

In October 1994, a team from the Oneida Indian Nation of New York
visited Washington to view a new Internet site at the White House. The
press release describing the visit is reproduced below to introduce the
topic: how the Indigenous nations of the Americas are using the Internet to
support their struggle for self-determination.

"A Nation team comprised of Dan Garrow, Management Information
Services director, Dan Umstead, Internet coordinator, and Brian Patterson
and Marilyn John for the Nation Leadership, viewed the site, and reported
it to be well organized with extensive access to a variety of general legal
and government information. The White House's Web site could be
utilized on a regular basis for research and could supplement the Nation's
cultural and educational programs, they reported. They did note an
absence of specific information in reference to Indian history or treaties,
points which in American Indian viewpoint, are integral to the formation of
the United States

"... The Nation, in accordance with its government-to-government
philosophy and recent White House initiatives to communicate directly with
Indian Nations, is providing a direct-link access from the Nation Web Site
(URL http://nysernet.org/oneida/) to the White House Web Site for the
ease of Internet users." (Oneida Indian Nation of NY, 1994)

Indigenous peoples and nations are now a specific presence on the Internet,
and they have made the global computer network a site for information
exchange, analysis and action on self-determination. This article will
describe and attempt to provide a context for these activities.

Communications Support for Self-Determination Struggles

The Internet is being used to support political struggles in South, Central,
and North America. Most of the 30 million Indigenous peoples of the
Americas live in Latin America, where their political and land rights are
only beginning to win recognition. The consequences of political
recognition by the dominant nation-states become clear when one considers
that Indigenous peoples represent more than 60 percent of the population in
countries such as Bolivia and Guatemala. Despite centuries of brutal
repression, Indigenous movements in these areas constitute a major political
force. However, due to their uncompleted process of citizenry, Indigenous
peoples remain marginalized as political actors. (1) A recent example is
the Maya uprising in Chiapas, which has had a profound impact on the
Mexican political system. The Zapatista leaders have been using the
Internet to support this struggle, a novelty widely reported by the press. (2)

In North America, most Indigenous nations have treaty relationships with
Canada or the United States. The governments of both countries have been
fighting land and treaty rights in the courts for more than a century.
During the past two decades, significant legal advances have been made,
and some nations have become key political actors. For instance, a barrier
to the Quebec sovereignty movement is the opposition of First Nations in
the province who seek guarantees of their own rights to territory and self-
determination. Statements to this effect by the Mohawk, James Bay Cree,
Innu and other nations in Quebec have been appearing on the Internet for
several years.

The presence of Indigenous nations on the Internet is one facet of a
growing movement to rekindle "international" communication and trade
links that existed in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans but were
suppressed under centuries of colonial rule. In keeping with this
movement, the UNDP recently announced plans to set up a trust fund to
provide seed money for trade and development projects between Indigenous
nations in the North and South of the Americas. Significantly,
confederations are solidifying across the political borders of nation-states.
For instance, a pan-Mayan movement is emerging in Central America --
across the boundaries of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Southern
Mexico -- with a focus on self-valorizing strategies such as research and
support for native languages, self-defined rural development, education,
libraries, and pan-Mayan literatures. This pan-Mayan movement is linked
by radio broadcasting, publications, telephone calls and faxes and,
increasingly, by Internet e-mail.

The Indigenous nations of the Americas have a strong tradition of building
communication and media networks to support their self-determination
goals: In the US, Indigenous nations have been publishing newspapers
since the early 19th century; in Canada, Indigenous peoples currently
control more than 60 newspapers and almost 50 radio stations; in Latin
America, Indigenous leaders recently announced plans to expand existing
networks by training more Indigenous journalists. This strategy has been
described as creating media networks run by Indigenous peoples for
Indigenous peoples (Delgado, 1993). Indigenous media see their mission
as serving the interests of the Indigenous movement in its historical
struggle against the assimilationist policies of the dominant nation-states.
Indigenous media -- recognizing that self-determination requires peoples to
be respected as belonging to different nations, with their own cultures and
territories -- perform the radical task of informing the public about
experiences that are consistently manipulated by the mainstream media to
discriminate against Indigenous peoples. These media networks
democratize and serve as a complement to the distorted image of citizenry
as it applies to Indigenous peoples.

This communications strategy has expanded to the Internet, where
Indigenous nations and organizations are providing public information sites
over which they have complete control and using existing Internet sites and
networks for their own purposes. Significantly, initiatives are underway in
North America to develop a full-service computer network owned and
operated by Indigenous peoples.

Using the Internet to Develop Indigenous Nations

`Using the Internet' means using a computer to send and receive electronic
mail (e-mail) or search for information stored on other computers (`surf the
net'), or to make information available by hooking up a computer
containing data files. Every person connected to the Internet can send and
receive e-mail but not all have the connection needed to `surf the net.' An
estimated 90 percent of Internet activity is e-mail.

The Internet is being used to support a wide range of activities, including
biodiversity and resource management, arts and cultural activities, and
others. The selected activities described below fall into three overlapping
categories: research, education, and political networking -- different but
related strategies for nation-building.

The research conducted by Indigenous nations ranges from historical
research for court cases on land and treaty rights, to general research to
assist day-to-day operations. The Internet is being used to tap into
information stored on computers around the world. For instance, the
Oneida Indian Nation of New York noted the URL address of their World
Wide Web site (the computer where their files are stored) in their press
release; a computer can be directed to link with this site and then view and
retrieve their treaty research files. Information files are located on
machines controlled by Indigenous peoples and others set up specifically
for their needs, such as the INDIANnet Census Information Computer
Network Centre and the Fourth World Documentation Project.
Universities have made their "Native Studies" information available. A
comprehensive information resource is the NativeNet World Wide Web
site; NativeNet also operates Internet mailing lists used by researchers to
exchange information that will further their work.

The Internet supports education programs in various ways. Teachers use
Internet mailing lists to exchange pedagogical information and they access
information from Internet-linked computers when preparing courses. The
Native Education Centre Electronic Library Internet site, for instance,
contains the texts of historic speeches and relevant book reviews. Students
can retrieve music from the Cradleboard bulletin board service, designed
by Cree musician Buffy Sainte-Marie to teach Indigenous children about
their heritage. The Internet offers particular advantages for distance
education in remote communities. When online, "students are able to keep
in touch with their instructors quickly and efficiently because Internet e-
mail takes just minutes to send or receive anywhere in North America."
(Armstrong, 1994) A concerted attempt is underway to extend the NII (the
US National Information Infrastructure) to all the Indigenous-run colleges
and universities in the US. Specialized institutions are using the internet to
connect with the larger community -- such as the Native Literacy Centre in
Oaxaca, Mexico, which uses computers as a tool for preserving Indigenous
languages.

Indigenous nations and organizations network by private e-mail with each
other and with their supporters. To keep the general public informed of
their activities, they routinely e-mail press releases and bulletins to public
Internet sites. Postings appear regularly from, among others: the Carrier
Sekani Tribal Council, working to halt Alcan's Kemano 2 project; and the
Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, working to stop the Daishowa Corporation's
plans to clearcut unceded territories. The Lubicon Nation is also using
Internet e-mail to help coordinate a boycott of Daishowa paper products.
Thousands of miles south of Lubicon Nation territory, a network of
environmentalists regularly e-mails updates on the demise of the Amazon
rainforests.

Electronic mail has proved particularly useful in times of crisis. CONAIE,
the Indigenous organization in Ecuador, used e-mail to coordinate their
historical national mobilization to reject the government's plans to privatize
lands belonging to the Indigenous peasantry. E-mail communication played
an important role during the Yanomami crisis when Garimpeiros (gold
miners) killed members of that Tribe at the Brazilian-Venezuelan border.
In this case, CIMI, the Missionaries Council, acted as an intermediary to
send information out by e-mail that was reproduced throughout the world.
The impact of some e-mail activity has been considerable. An article about
the infamous Chase Manhattan report calling for the "elimination of the
Zapatistas" to improve Mexico's financial prospects had limited circulation
in the publication COUNTERPUNCH but after it was posted on the
Internet, the situation changed dramatically. Reposted widely, the story
was soon being discussed in the press in Mexico, the US, and Europe
(Cleaver, 1995). During the resulting international furore, the Chase
Manhattan Bank fired the author of the report.

In addition to one-to-one private e-mail exchanges, more than a dozen
Internet mailing lists exist for public discussion of Indigenous issues. The
mailing list technology allows interactive, one-to-many communication
among subscribers: a message e-mailed to the central computer is
distributed automatically to everyone on the list. Using e-mail to exchange
information and ideas encourages a continental, if not universal,
understanding of what it means to be a citizen of an Indigenous nation
dealing with the assimilationist policies of dominant nation-states.
Communication between people, communities and nations across vast
distances brings home the realization that natural resources everywhere,
especially lands and territories, have suffered similar fates under systems of
colonialism and neo-colonialism. The authors believe the most important
outcome of the e-mail networking activity is the awareness of the need to
coordinate a conscious struggle for true self-determination. Given that this
is not a one-way struggle, communications have helped to create strong
alliances between Indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples who now
have the opportunity to understand the situation from a comparative
perspective. There are indications that the networking activities are
contributing to a growing commitment to build a society based on mutual
respect and protective of its nurturing base.

Emerging Issues

The South and Meso American Indian Rights Centre (SAIIC) and
NativeNet recently sponsored an afternoon Internet workshop at the
University of California, Berkeley, where participants raised two key
concerns: access and information security.

Most of the 30 million Indigenous peoples of the Americas have no direct
Internet access, and this situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable
future. The top level of Internet access is a direct link with the high-speed
"backbone" joining major urban institutions in North America and Latin
America -- universities, governments and large organizations. The next
level of direct Internet access is telephone connection to the high-speed
link. Direct Internet access is therefore limited to people affiliated with
major institutions or people who have access to a computer, modem,
telephone, and the money to pay for Internet connection, telephone
charges, training and support. In areas of Latin America, monthly wages
for an Indigenous person can be as low as $30 US, and there may be no
telephone infrastructure, even satellite telephone, for hundreds of miles. In
North America, some Indigenous communities have unemployment rates
reaching 90 percent, inadequate health and social services, high suicide
rates, no electricity, no running water, no paved roads or no telephones.
In these areas, Internet connectivity would hardly be expected to be a
pressing individual or community priority. Nevertheless, the urgency to be
connected to a larger system has been clearly understood. Increasingly,
Indigenous representatives negotiating aid assistance or participating in
NGO solidarity projects are asking for computers, training, and connection
to the Internet.

Another Internet access route is indirect access through an intermediary -- a
friend or associate. Opportunities exist for people with access to the
Internet to post messages on behalf of those without. Preliminary
observation suggests that indirect access is an important feature of the
Internet participation of Indigenous peoples: many of the press releases and
reports describing their activities have been posted on their behalf by an
intermediary. An example is CEDIB, a research centre advocating in
favour of coca production by traditional Aymara and Quechua Yunga
peasants in Bolivia. CEDIB offers to post Internet messages on behalf of
the Indigenous peasants who have recently mobilized to defend their
traditional production of coca. Acting as an intermediary allows solidarity
and support while leaving the message to be communicated in the hands of
Indigenous peoples.

In addition to cost and physical location, other barriers to participation on
the Internet include language, literacy and gender. Research on the general
population suggests that the Internet may be largely restricted to the
wealthy, educated, articulate and male members of society. One danger is
that unequal access to the Internet -- similar to unequal access to telephones
-- could intensify existing power imbalances within and between Indigenous
communities and nations. As people increasingly turn to the Internet for
information about Indigenous peoples, those without access could be unable
to represent themselves. As networks of Indigenous communities and
nations increasingly depend on the Internet, those without access could be
left out.

The second issue, information security, is of general concern to Internet
users but has specific implications for Indigenous nations. This concern is
understandable in light of recent events. One can easily point to, for
instance: the wide-ranging plans for Internet surveillance by the US
government and its agencies; the swift action by Canadian authorities to cut
the telephone connection to journalists and Mohawk activists behind the
barricades during the "Oka crisis" in 1990; and the suspicious
circumstances surrounding the breakdown of the Mexican Internet
connection after the Maya uprising in Chiapas. (3) In the future, the
widespread use of public key encryption technology will help keep e-mail
private, but network connections will always be vulnerable to political
interference.

There is a growing tendency to envision the use of the Internet by
Indigenous peoples as a counter-hegemonic practice. Daniel Linger (1993),
looking at vertical lines of patronage within the Brazilian context, has
suggested that "the cultural weapons forged get turned back on their
makers." To some extent, the Internet activity can be considered a
counter-hegemonic, or non-traditional, strategy of cultural revalorization.
Framing the situation this way helps explain the recent breakouts of
"Mayan hackers" -- Mayan professionals trained in universities outside
Guatemala who are returning home with the computer know-how necessary
to push for the decolonization of the realpolitik used to discriminate against
the Maya. (4) In fact, some Mayan leaders consider decolonization the
access to computer technology in order to learn how to use it rather than
being used by it. (5) In this sense, Guatemala is becoming global as the
Maya further their presence not only locally, but also nationally and
continentally.

An obvious question emerges about the effects of these activities: Can the
Internet help increase the strength of Indigenous nations and the power of
the movement for self-determination? The answer rests with Indigenous
peoples themselves, on how consciously and strategically they and their
allies will use and modify the new communication technologies to meet
their self-determination goals.

......................................................................
Notes

1. For a good analysis of the situation in Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala,
Colombia and Ecuador, see the Indian Movements and the Electoral
Process theme issue of Abya Yala News, 8(3) 1994.

2. 1995 articles include: The hi-tech Robin Hood, The Guardian, 20
February; Mexican Rebels Using A High-Tech Weapon: Internet Helps
Rally Support, Washington Post, 20 February; When Words are the Best
Weapon, Newsweek, 27 February; Rebels use Internet to Argue Cause, The
Independent (UK), 7 March.

3. Related to this last case, one analyst observed that: "Whether or not the
government was responsible, the general panic that erupted when the
network was broken shows how essential the LANETA connection has
become." Halleck, D. (1994). Zapatistas On-Line. NACLA, Report on the
Americas. Vol XXVIII(2) Sept/Oct. 30-32.

4. Personal communication with Diane Nelson.

5. Personal communication with COMG Mayan leaders.

References

Armstrong, G. (1994). Distance education gains new life with electronic
mail. Windspeaker, 21 November, R2.

Cleaver, H. (1995). Media Recognition: Opportunities and Dangers.
Commentary posted to the CHIAPAS-L mailing list, 5 March. File
available from <majordomo@...>.

Delgado, G. (1993). Indigenous Media. In: Fagerhaug, A. ed., Norwegian
Indian Society. Final Report, European Conference on Indian Questions.
University of Trondheim, Centre for Environment and Development.

Linger, D. (1993). The Hegemony of Discontent. American Ethnologist,
20(1), 3-24.

Oneida Indian Nation of NY. (1994). Oneida Nation gets early `Welcome
to the White House'. Press release dated 21 October.

.......................................................................
Authors

Susan O'Donnell has worked with Indigenous nations in Canada as a
freelance writer and editor. She is currently at the Centre for Journalism
Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, writing her MA thesis on how the
Internet is being used to build solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the
Americas (susanodo@...).

Guillermo Delgado teaches Latino American Studies at the University of
California. His recent article: "Ethnic Politics and Popular Movements"
can be found in S. Jonas and E. McCaughan, eds., Latin America Faces
the 21st Century, Oxford, Westview Press, 1994. He is on the board of
directors of the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)
(saiic@...).