American Indian Social Networking

American Indian Social Networking on MySpace

There is an American Indian social networking community on arguably the most popular social networking website, MySpace. Webmaster David Baker, known as Eagle Vale in the Native American community, calls myrezspace.com the page a "native tribal community" and his goal is to "preserve knowledge of native culture." This native community includes:

• Member blogs
• Friendship centers
• Business directory
• Pictures
• Articles on Native American history

Specialized Native American Social Networking Sites

There are other Native American social networks geared toward specific groups such as cancer survivors and firefighters. There also a few social networks that focus on connecting Native American people from all different tribes around the country:

• Native American Passions – A dating and social networking site that includes forums, instant messaging and a place where members can post photos. Although the site seems to predominately focus on dating, it also has channels about other "passions" such as movies and yoga. There is no fee to join Native American Passions.
• American Indian T.V. - A subscriber-based news website where members can read current American Indian news articles and watch user videos. The site also contains a educational, business, economic and government links.
• Firefighter Nation - A social networking site exclusively for Native American firefighters, emergency medical and rescue personnel. This site boasts more than 14,000 members.
• The National Native American Cancer Survivors Network – A web-based community for cancer survivors, caregivers and educators.
• Native Hip Hop – Centered around Native Americans and Hip Hop music, this site has pictures, message boards, a writer's column and announcements for upcoming events.
• Big East Native Social Network – BENSN offers personalized homepages, instant messaging and chat rooms.
• Snag a Skin – Another Native American social networking site that is centered on dating and meeting others.
• Howling Point 1 – A message board and chat room forum for Native Americans who love wolves.

Native American Facebook Controversy

An old controversy resurfaced in early 2007 at the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign when a student made racist comments on the school mascot's Facebook page. The University of Illinois Fighting Illini mascot, named Chief Illiniwek, featured a Native American in the ceremonial headdress of the Sioux has been mired in controversy for decades and the comments made by students under the Facebook group name "If They Get Rid of the Chief, I'm Becoming a Racist" re-ignited the ongoing issue.

Members of the group reportedly not only made racist comments about Native Americans in general, but some posts were directed at a particular Native American female student.

In February 2007, the head of the university board decided to retire Chief Illiniwek. The following month at a basketball game against the University of Michigan, Chief Illiniwek and everything associated with the mascot was officially retired including his name and his ceremonial Sioux headdress.

Other Social Networking Controversies

The Chief Illiniwek incident has not been the only controversial issue when it comes to social networking websites. A few others include:

• A 2005 incident led to the Secret Service visiting the campus of the University of Oklahoma after what seemed like a tongue-and-cheek posting that involved replacing the president of the United States with a monkey.
• Police prevented another potential college campus shooting after a SUNY College of Cobleskill student posted a threatening message on his Facebook page a couple days after the Virginia Tech shootings.
• After a college student posted entries on his Facebook page regarding his intimate relationship with a young woman. The woman alerted Facebook administrators and the page was taken down. The young man's reply to the incident "I never thought something on Facebook would get me into trouble in the real world."