------- Response to "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure” by Christian Sandvig
In the article “Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure”, Christian Sandvig reveals a fact that the internet infrastructure in the Indian reservations is fundamentally incomplete.Native Americans living in those reservations have little or no access to internet, whereas the internet has already been very popular in other areas of United Stated. Thus, the author points out that this difference in the internet accessibility forms a racial issue in regard to the cyberspace. While the inequality in the access to internet makes me really concerned about the racial issue displayed in native Indian reservations, I also noticed the reason behind this inequality.
First of all, the landform of those native lands are not desirable for building even some basic infrastructure. As a matter of fact, the native Indian Americans living in those reservations not only have problem to Internet access, but also telephones. Furthermore,since those areas are usually surrounded by mountains, even roads and power are more difficult to construct there than in other areas. Given this circumstance, I think the difference of living a life between native Indian Americans and other American citizens, especially white people as the article points out, is not just limited in their access to the Internet, but their access to the outside world. Thus, I think that the racial issue proposed by the author goes far beyond the Internet accessibility in those native Indian reservations. Besides the internet, government of United States should also complete other basic infrastructure facilities, such as telecommunications and electrical power.
Furthermore, what interests me most among the facts brought from the author is that some native Indian Americans actually holds resistance to the Internet. While through the Internet tribe people can get access to many useful resources like some educational materials, they are also able to approach to some harmful information which is quite prevalent on Internet. More importantly, the traditional tribal knowledge and culture may be lost through the process of getting access to internet. With the Internet, what the tribal people see and know is no longer just their tribal culture, but tons of miscellaneous content. Attentions and interests of the tribe people may be drawn from their tribal knowledge and culture to some other culture or fashion. For example, through Internet, some children in the native Indian reservations may play many kinds of computer games and watch a lot of Disney’s cartoons. Undoubtedly, the openness to all kinds of culture will broaden people’s horizon in some ways. However, if that is too much, people who used to live in a relatively traditional culture will eventually lose their identities. Then the assimilation takes place. Therefore, in my opinion, even when the basic Internet access infrastructure has been completed, there are still a lot of ethical things need to consider.
First of all, the landform of those native lands are not desirable for building even some basic infrastructure. As a matter of fact, the native Indian Americans living in those reservations not only have problem to Internet access, but also telephones. Furthermore,since those areas are usually surrounded by mountains, even roads and power are more difficult to construct there than in other areas. Given this circumstance, I think the difference of living a life between native Indian Americans and other American citizens, especially white people as the article points out, is not just limited in their access to the Internet, but their access to the outside world. Thus, I think that the racial issue proposed by the author goes far beyond the Internet accessibility in those native Indian reservations. Besides the internet, government of United States should also complete other basic infrastructure facilities, such as telecommunications and electrical power.
Furthermore, what interests me most among the facts brought from the author is that some native Indian Americans actually holds resistance to the Internet. While through the Internet tribe people can get access to many useful resources like some educational materials, they are also able to approach to some harmful information which is quite prevalent on Internet. More importantly, the traditional tribal knowledge and culture may be lost through the process of getting access to internet. With the Internet, what the tribal people see and know is no longer just their tribal culture, but tons of miscellaneous content. Attentions and interests of the tribe people may be drawn from their tribal knowledge and culture to some other culture or fashion. For example, through Internet, some children in the native Indian reservations may play many kinds of computer games and watch a lot of Disney’s cartoons. Undoubtedly, the openness to all kinds of culture will broaden people’s horizon in some ways. However, if that is too much, people who used to live in a relatively traditional culture will eventually lose their identities. Then the assimilation takes place. Therefore, in my opinion, even when the basic Internet access infrastructure has been completed, there are still a lot of ethical things need to consider.