working on a grant proposal to obtain infrastructure (connectivity and
such) and training for a small Inuit village in Alaska (Atmaluak, if you
know the area). The idea was that village would, eventually, support
the costs involved by managing an online coop of sorts which would sell
native crafts and foodstuffs.
Things like mittens, hats, native toys, jerky (seal mostly), works of
art, etc would be sold online. Atmaluak would become the centralized
processing/shipping center for several smaller villages nearby. The
initial costs being requested covered the infrastructure and the initial
training (presumably by me and my buddy who was teaching there at the
time) - the idea being that the web site/sales/everything would
eventually be run totally by the villagers.
Unfortunately funding was cut enough that he couldn't even stay on
teaching there. the last I heard he was living in his cabin on Glacier
Bay and looking for another teaching job.
The whole Native American issue is definitely the USA's dirty little
secret. Native Alaskans are treated somewhat different than those in
the lower 48 - each tribe is (generally) managed by a traditional tribal
council as well as a tribal corporation that (supposedly) handles their
oil money (what little of it there is). These corporations are rather
less interested in traditional needs than one would hope.
Many schools are instructed to punish children who speak native
languages (which they need to speak to older relatives) instead of
English. The children often end up with poor command of either language
and this leads to many other problems. Alcoholism is rampant and the
suicide rates among males 18-25 is the highest in the country. It's a
sad state of affairs.
There are a lot of people that think that all Native Americans are
"casino rich" but only a very tribes actually run casinos and of those
that do only a small percentage of the wealth is distributed throughout
the whole tribe. Many other's eke out a living selling tax free gas or
cigarettes but they are constantly under attack from jealous local
merchants and authorities.
Furthermore most reservations are surrounded by a "buffer zone" of
white, lower class people. This means that services wither as you get
closer (even things like street lights and road signage). There's a lot
of racism -a lot of it blatant and systemic and completely accepted.
Use the word "nigger" and you'll see amazed looks of disgust at your
ignorance - but say "redskin" or call somebody a "Bow-bender" or
"feather-head" or "scalper" and there's no problem.
Most of my experience is in the NorthEast (NY and MA) - it may be
different in the southwest.
I didn't actually mean to make this as long as it is. anyway:
Good luck!
Jim Davis
-----Original Message-----
From: S. Isaac Dealey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 2:12 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: Re: Who I'm voting for
Well, not necessarily just this reservation specifically, but I think
the idea is at least deserving of some consideration. I'm not saying
I'm gonna throw everything I have into the idea regardless of the odds
-- but I do think it deserves some careful concentration. Which is
what I'm trying to do now -- it's going to take some time to get the
kind of information I'll need to know what (if anything) is possible.
In the end it may not be a risk I'm willing to take. On the other hand
it may surprise me in the oposite direction.
Wish me luck. I always need it. :)
> I don't see anything on the website about any IT
> initiative? I am very
> familiar with the area as I spent about a decade there in
> the fall of 2001.
> I have extreme doubts, based not so much on any knowledge
> of this tribe as
> on the very great difficulty of getting anything done in
> Polk County,
> period.
> The entire region is incredibly inbred and hey, if they
> pull this off it
> would be a great thing. Livingston is really pround of its
> Wal-Mart --
> that's *its* idea of economic development and well as high
> entertainment
> for many of its citizens -- and when the local gas station
> was hiring there
> there was almost a feeding frenzy. See previous remarks on
> the culture and
> economy of East Texas, which refer to this town. The
> nearest *2year*
> callege is two counties away in Nagacdoches and there isnt
> a university
> closer than Houston, a hundred or so miles to the south.
> At the time I was
> there the reservation was looking for people to teach word
> processing...
> ::sigh::
> Dana
>> >> I'm not sure where this will lead, but here is an
>> >> initiative I think
>> >> deserves serious consideration.
>> >>
>> >> I'm contemplating moving my own business to this
>> >> reservation:
>> >> http://www.alabama-coushatta.com/
>> >>
>> >> The tentative plan is to hire on and train some of the
>> >> younger tribe
>> >> members as web applications developers and do the work
>> >> remotely on the
>> >> reservation, while sending sales people to find work
>> >> for
>> >> them in the
>> >> larger markets throughout the US.
>> >>
>> >> Here are my pros and con's as compared to hiring out
>> >> to
>> >> India (with
>> >> the assumption that the remote software development
>> >> business model
>> >> works).
>> >>
>> >> PRO:
>> >>
>> >> 1) The money stays in the US and benefits some of our
>> >> most
>> >> economically depressed citizens. Business trips when
>> >> desirable are
>> >> also less expensive.
>> >>
>> >> 2) American Indians by and large speak English rather
>> >> than
>> >> English-ASL, which will mitigate communication gaps
>> >> and
>> >> errors in
>> >> translation.
>> >>
>> >> 3) The US Government offers financial assistance in
>> >> the
>> >> form of grants
>> >> and I believe some loans to minority businesses.
>> >>
>> >> CON:
>> >>
>> >> 1) American Indian workers are probably still slightly
>> >> more expensive
>> >> than workers on the Indian sub-continent.
>> >>
>> >> 2) American Indian workers will likely require more
>> >> training. I'm
>> >> banking on their being eager learners. :)
>> >>
>> >> 3) Some reservations may not have pre-existing
>> >> infrastructure to make
>> >> remote networking easy.
>> >>
>> >> I'm not saying it's a complete solution to anyone's
>> >> problems. I do
>> >> think the idea deserves attention, possibly even
>> >> legislative
>> >> attention.
>> >>
>> >> s. isaac dealey 972-490-6624
>> >>
>> >> team macromedia volunteer
>> >> http://www.macromedia.com/go/team
>> >>
>> >> chief architect, tapestry cms
>> >> http://products.turnkey.to
>> >>
>> >> onTap is open source
>> >> http://www.turnkey.to/ontap
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > I'm voting for whoever can bring jobs back to
>> >> > America.
>> >> > http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/04/india.job
>> >> > s.r
>> >> > eut
>> >> > /index.html
>> >>
>> >> > --
>> >> > Michael Dinowitz
>> >> > Finding technical solutions to the problems you
>> >> > didn't
>> >> > know you had yet
>> >> >
>> >
>>
>
_____
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