Tribal Communications officers or Webpersons I want to try to keep up these map windows into the web, even though it seems as if it's such a big job that it won't be possible. Maybe with your help it can be kept up even with considerable delays. Let me know if you have a website about your tribe that should   be linked-to on one of the "state map window" pages. If your tribe's reservation overlaps state boundaries, my map window placement rule is to put the link within the state where the Tribal office town (or postal address) is located, although I'll also have maps that show the reservation boundary overlapping state lines -- for example, for the Navajo reservation, or as I've already done for Standing Rock (ND and SD, but tribal office is in ND).

Because BIA contact info is being repeated here, it's possible tribal business offices could be pestered by a lot of teachers and students, or others. If you have a phone for someone who deals with general public info requests, list it at your website. If you have educational materials available to the general public, mention them and be sure to mention a price that will cover printing and mailing costs. (I receive a lot of requests I usually cannot help with for language learning materials.) It is to be expected that individuals seeking to learn of their tribal heritage may want to make contact, so a tribal enrollment officer's contact info is also a good idea to have on your web pages. Address/phones for tribal tourist enterprises -- casinos, hotels, RV parks, etc. -- will aid those who might plan vacation visits, and there is nothing more encouraging to tourists than a good, clear map of how to get there somewhere on your site. The small "general reservation location" state imagemaps that appear here do not serve that purpose well at all.

I receive quite a few requests for info or referrals as to where people can purchase Indian-made gifts; if you are set up to handle such requests for arts, crafts, food products, etc. address/phones for such enterprises could bring in some new business to tribal enterprises and those maintained by individuals or families. Many supportive persons or businesses might patronize such tribal enterprises (or those of individual members) as print shops, small construction, and various forms of service business -- if they knew how to get in touch and find out what the deal is. All of that kind of info could make your website functional and a service to tribal members, as well as serving educational outreach purposes and publicizing your larger enterprises.

EMAIL NOTICE OF SITE -- either new sites or sites specifically focussed on particular tribes will be linked here, including sites with relevant documents where found. Please email me notice of your site. Since I get quite a bit of email, to make sure I don't miss it, in the SUBJECT HEADER of the email form, put TRIBAL SITE NOTICE, STATE, TRIBE, Official/unofficial. In the body of youyr message, if the site is unofficial -- not prepared or sponsored by the sovereign government of that nation -- please indicate if you are a tribal member, scholar, or what your reasons are for preparing a page or website about that tribe. Official sites should contain the "physical" (mail, phone) contact info corresponding to the BIA's, and this will always be checked. Unofficial sites which claim to be official will also be checked. If for some reason, your tribe does not   appear either on the BIA's list of federally recognized tribes or in the 1996 Federal Economic Development Administration';s huge directory of "American Indian Reservations and Trust Areas" please indicate why (i.e. you gained recognition very recently; you were omitted by error which the BIA has been notified of, etc.). (You should also notify the BIA to update the current listing it maintains on its webserver.)

If your tribe is not federally recognized   but is petitioning for it, this info should appear in the body of your message, and should also appear on your web pages somewhere.If you are a member of a group that is petitioning, and want to prepare a website for that group, it is highly recommended you have your material reviewed by the actual governing elders, and by the tribe's lawyer if possible. It is likely that telling your story might help your struggle for recognition, but it is certain that poorly conceived site with ill-conceived inaccurate content and an apparent association to nuager groups can and will hurt your group's serious efforts.

A great many beautiful and informative sites are "unofficial" prepared by tribal members who want to share their history, culture, and art. However there are also sites prepared about   tribes by tourist agencies and various commercial enterprises, and by people who seem to know almost nothing about the tribe who often misrepresent their web pages as official nation sites. Depending on the educational value, these sites may or may not be linked here, but will always be marked unofficial (if that isn't obvious from the site itself). The emphasis is on Native Nations and Native peoples telling their own stories, although wherever I find relevant documentary sites, those are linked. In general, sites composed mostly of links, and "general Indian" sites will not be linked on these pages, although regional tribal overviews may be. The access plan and method of organizing tribal web data is by tribal groups -- reservations. Reservations located in more than one state are linked-to state maps where tribal headquarters is located, but the maps will generally show how these reservations overlap state boundaries.

Last Updated: 2/14/97