NATIVES ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: TECHNOLOGY AND

426 Pages·1999·4.84 MB·English

NATIVES ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL
CHANGE ON THE CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX RESERVATION
By
STEVEN MIZRACH
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1999
Copyright 1999
by
Steven Mizrach
Dedicated to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe:
You taught me the meaning of the phrase "All My Relations"
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my committee members - Dr. Allan Burns,
Dr. H. "Russ" Bernard, Dr. Norman Markel, Dr. John Moore, and
Dr. Gregory Ulmer - for their advice and suggestions. Other
UF faculty - including Dr. Susan Milbrath, Dr. Ricardo Godoy,
and Dr. Jim Stansbury - also offered some input. The
Electronic Intermedia Lab and Dr. Will Pappenheimer helped me
to prepare the video portions of this research. I also would
like to thank my friends and colleagues, George Mbeh, Michael
McGinnes, Ken Sturrock, Brad Biglow, Tony Hebert, and Rebecca
Gearhart for ideas and assistance. I also got some good
feedback from CASTAC members such as Ron Eglash and Stefan
Helmreich at the AAA meetings. And I especially want to thank
Jim Picotte and the staff of the HVJ Lakota Cultural Center
for making all this possible and constantly trying to keep me
on the right path. Lastly, I cannot forget my family,
especially my mother, father, brothers, and nephews, for
offering me the material and emotional support I needed to
survive in a new and novel situation.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ........................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................... viii
ABSTRACT ................................................... x
CHAPTERS
1. INTRODUCTION AND SETTING ................................ 1
Research Question........................................ 4
Field Site............................................... 5
The Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation .................. 5
CRST Telephone Authority ............................. 12
The Harry V. Johnston Lakota Cultural Center ......... 17
Outline for the Dissertation............................ 23
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................... 26
Luddites and Others: Technology and Its Critics......... 26
The Indigenous “Noble Savage” as a Trope ............. 30
Jerry Mander: There’s Nothing Sacred about TV ........ 33
Steel Axes for Stone Age People......................... 37
The Effects of Television in Western Societies.......... 42
Toronto School-based Theories ....................... 47
Non-Content Based Theories: TV as Cultural Artefact .. 52
Previous Studies of TV in Non-Western Cultures.......... 54
Survey Articles ...................................... 55
Studies by Communications Researchers ................ 62
Studies by Anthropologists ........................... 66
Toronto School Media Research in Anthropology........... 76
Western and Electronic Frontiers........................ 79
Are Natives Ready for the Electronic Frontier?.......... 84
The Ideas of Indigenous Intellectual Duke Redbird .... 85
The Internet and Indigenous People ................... 89
Native Ethnomathematics: To Compute is Human ......... 93
Examples of Indigenous Television and Media Production.. 97
The Invention of Television in Aboriginal Australia .. 97
Native Radio Broadcasting in the United States ...... 102
Inuit Satellite Broadcasting in Canada .............. 106
Indigenous Filmmaking and Videography ............... 109
Native Internet and Multimedia Projects ............. 117
Summary................................................ 121
3. THEORY AND METHODS .................................... 123
Theoretical Perspectives............................... 123
Intra-Social Theories of Media Effects .............. 123
Cultural Imperialism Theory ......................... 127
Technological Determinism Theory .................... 139
v
Social Determinism Theory ........................... 147
Structure and Agency in Social Systems................. 159
Technology and Agency.................................. 162
First, Second, and Third Wave Civilization............. 166
What is Globalization and Why Worry?................... 174
Deconstructing Technology, Culture, and Nature......... 182
The Historical Processes of Culturicide and Renewal.... 186
Ethnic Resistance and Renewal.......................... 190
Methods................................................ 195
The Seven Lakota W's ................................ 199
A Note on Quotes .................................... 205
4. FINDINGS, RESULTS, AND OBSERVATIONS ................... 206
Survey Findings........................................ 206
Content Analysis of Oral Histories..................... 212
Technology and Cultural Conflict among the Lakota...... 219
Lakota Acculturation: Observations..................... 237
The Preservation of Cultural Characteristics .......... 243
Performance and Public Culture......................... 251
Curious Encounters with Technology among the Lakota.... 264
The Tribal Bison Cooperative Project ................ 265
Webbing up the Tribe ................................ 273
Institutions of Cultural Revival and Resistance........ 277
Lakota: Land of Survivors.............................. 299
5. APPLIED MATTERS ....................................... 304
Applied Anthropologists and Natives................... 304
Some Basic Facts about Native Americans in the U.S..... 312
Applied Activities on the CRST Reservation............. 313
The New World Information and Communication Order...... 321
Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property......... 329
Indigenous Emerging Media as Intellectual Property..... 337
Native Americans and Telecommunication................. 343
Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Scenarios ................ 344
Ways in Which Technology can Assist Native Cultures . 345
Information Technology and Economic Development........ 351
Technology and Indigenous Identity..................... 370
6. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ............................ 378
Technology and Acculturation ........................ 380
Technology and Cultural Revival ..................... 383
Local Control over Technology ....................... 387
Technology and Agency Theory ........................ 390
Applied Anthropologists as Technology Brokers ....... 393
Future Studies......................................... 396
REFERENCES ............................................... 401
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...................................... 426
vi
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 1. The Toronto School and the phases of communication
technology evolution................................... 49
TABLE 2. Discontinuities between the industrial and post-
industrial modes of production........................ 168
TABLE 3. R-Scores (Pearson’s coefficient of correlation)
between variables representing television and
acculturation......................................... 207
TABLE 4. Types of shows most frequently watched. ........ 209
TABLE 5. Linear regression analysis: technology score
compared to other variables........................... 211
TABLE 6. R-scores of correlation between technology scores
and indices of acculturation.......................... 211
TABLE 7. Most frequently used Internet services .......... 211
TABLE 8. Internet users and phone lines by region ........ 323
TABLE 9. Cultural commodity exports in developed and
underdeveloped countries – worldwide percentage of exports
in various categories................................. 323
TABLE 10. Phones, TVs, and computers per capita in selected
countries from the First and Third world.............. 324
TABLE 11. Data from the PANOS Institute study on “the
Internet and the South”............................... 324
TABLE 12. Global teledensity ............................. 325
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. The four bands of the CRST ....................... 7
Figure 2. Arvol Looking Horse ............................. 10
Figure 3. The Indian myths of Devil’s Tower ............... 11
Figure 4. The HVJ Lakota Cultural Center .................. 17
Figure 5. HVJLCC: cultural education and preservation ..... 18
Figure 6. 25th Anniversary Mug ............................. 21
Figure 7. Wakpa Waste on KLND radio ....................... 22
Figure 8. Cultural center videos for Wolakota Project ..... 23
Figure 9. KILI Radio ..................................... 103
Figure 10. Linear model of technological determinism ..... 162
Figure 11. Cybernetic model of technology and culture .... 163
Figure 12. Global Distribution of Internet Users ......... 174
Figure 13. The Seven W's ................................. 200
Figure 14. Qualitative Analysis of Relationships ......... 219
Figure 15. Mural of the Sun Dance ........................ 222
Figure 16. Funeral ceremony for Sidney Keith ............. 224
Figure 17. There are always plenty of cameras at powwows . 227
Figure 18. Oglala Tribal Powwow dancer ................... 229
Figure 19. Lakota Concepts – an instructional video series 233
Figure 20. The image of the traditional Lakota warrior ... 238
Figure 21. Evangelical tent revival ...................... 247
Figure 22. C-EB Lakota artist mural ...................... 248
Figure 23. Star quilt adorning car ....................... 249
Figure 24. Black Hills powwow – electronic sponsor board . 251
Figure 25. CRST Labor Day Rodeo opening ceremony ......... 252
Figure 26. CRST Labor Day Powwow, Fair, and Rodeo ........ 253
Figure 27. Powwow drum group ............................. 254
Figure 28. Powwow vendors ................................ 256
Figure 29. Don’t mix tradition with addiction ............ 257
Figure 30. Powwows and technology ........................ 259
Figure 31. Pte He Kca, Inc. – mobile slaughterhouse ...... 265
Figure 32. Bringing a bison to slaughter ................. 266
Figure 33. Processing the bison .......................... 268
Figure 34. Kultur-Komfort-Funktion ....................... 271
Figure 35. Getting it all on video ....................... 272
Figure 36. The C-EB Adult Art Education .................. 277
Figure 37. Wounded Knee mural ............................ 279
Figure 38. District 4 meeting ............................ 283
Figure 39. Colorful flags at Bear Butte .................. 286
Figure 40. Looking for elders to teach youth ............. 294
Figure 41. Veterans as modern warrior figures ............ 297
Figure 42. Lakota Land of Survivors: poster .............. 300
Figure 43. “Rez Car” – self-deprecational humor .......... 312
Figure 44. Cultural center computer station .............. 316
viii
Figure 45. Internet Hosts Worldwide ...................... 328
Figure 46. Cool Runnings – Indian-owned and operated ..... 331
Figure 47. The Crazy Horse monument ...................... 339
Figure 48. Starting Tribally owned businesses (SBA) ...... 351
Figure 49. CRST Bingo .................................... 357
Figure 50. Okaton, SD. Ghost town ........................ 359
Figure 51. Never stop questioning ........................ 400
ix
Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
NATIVES ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL
CHANGE ON THE CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX RESERVATION
By
Steven Mizrach
August, 1999
Chair: Allan Burns
Major Department: Anthropology
This dissertation examines the relationship between
technology and cultural change on the Cheyenne River Sioux
Reservation in South Dakota, home to 7000 Lakota Indians.
Recently, a number of popular authors have suggested that
technology, especially electronic or 'emerging' media
technologies such as television and the Internet, is a
primary causative force for acculturation among indigenous
people. This study challenges the role often assigned to
technology in the process of acculturation, and shows the
ways in which media technology may be promoting the opposite
phenomenon, cultural revitalization, among indigenous groups.
It also offers a vision for the role of applied anthropology
among Native Americans in the future.
x