Native American Cybernetics (M4, #1)

Native American Cybernetics: Indigenous Knowledge Resources in Information Technology

URL: http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/nacyb.htm

This webpage is accessible through a professor’s homepage.  A professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ron Eglash is currently researching many topics including Native American Cybernetics.

On this webpage, Eglash provides a brief description of Native American Cybernetics and follows through with a clarification of the term cybernetics.  According to Eglash, contemporary information technologies are use in Native American knowledge systems and “native communities have become increasingly adept in appropriating computing and communication devices for their own use.”

Examples of such software are linked to: The Virtual Bead Loom, SimShoBan and Yupik Star Navigator.

Furthermore, two publications are made available : SimShoBan wins AAA Education Award and Computation, Complexity and Coding in Native American Knowledge Systems.

Finally, this page provides readers with extra related websites as resources: Navajo code talkers, The American Indian Computer Art Project, NativeTech, Native Seeds/SEARCH and Biopiracy.