Category — Module 4

Earth Keepers

URL: http://www.earthkeepers.net/

Earth Keepers One Tribe Trading Company is an organization that manufactures and distributes healing products.  Furthermore, this organization is committed to educating the public about the indigenous relationship with Mother Earth and each other.  This website provides readers and researchers with some valuable information and an introduction to indigenous ways.

Earth Keepers’ homepage links to five sites: 1) Eagle – our philosophy e-learnings, 2) Bear – Programs, Projects and Visions, 3) Horse- Products, Services, 4) Wolf – General info, News and Events, 5) Buffalo – you can help or participate.

Both the Eagle and Horse links lead readers to more links and valuable resources about indigenous life and beliefs. The Bear link shares valuable information on ongoing programs and upcoming projects.

Indigenous Environmental Network

URL: http://www.ienearth.org/

The Indigenous Environmental Network was created by grassroots indigenous people with common goal of addressing economic and environmental justice. The Networks goals are to: 1)Educate and empower Indigenous Peoples to address and develop strategies for the protection of the environment, health, and all life forms, 2)Re-affirm traditional knowledge and respect of natural laws, 3) Recognize, support, and promote environmentally sound lifestyles, economic livelihoods, and to build healthy sustaining Indigenous communities, 4) Commitment to influence policies that affect Indigenous Peoples on a local, tribal, state, regional, national and international level, 5)Include youth and elders in all levels of work 6)Protect human rights to practice cultural and spiritual beliefs.

This website provides readers and researchers alike with the latest related news and an option to sign up for a monthly newsletter.  Furthermore, on its website, the network provides further information on its programs and initiatives.  These include: 1)Native Energy and Climate Program, 2)Toxics and Environmental Health, 3)Mining, 4)Sustainable Communities, Green Jobs, Green Economies and Global Well-being, 5) Bioethics, Biological Diversity, Forests and Sacred Places, 6) Globalization, 7) Networking and Movement Building, 8 ) International Participation, 9) Youth, 10 ) Water, 11) Protecting Mother Earth Conferences, 12) Spirit Path Memorial.   Most of these project links lead to a page full of related resources such as articles or media or simply a brief description of the provided services.

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.