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How To Find Native Websitesby Lori FullerEver searched the web, in vain, trying to find that elusive website dealing with Buffy St. Marie? Or have you been on a quest to find that information on your family's history, and it seems to be hidden in a pothole (probably under some Yugo's tire) on that infamous "Information Superhighway"? Well, there's many ways to find what you're looking for online, and not all of them are quick and easy. In fact, much as I hate to say it, one of the best ways is just to search for hours and hours - and you'll find neat stuff along the way. However, there are some simple tricks you can use to try and find information in a hurry. Let's use a relatively simple example: You're searching for Kiowa legends, and can't seem to find them anywhere. You know there's many different legends told by the Kiowa, but nobody seems to have them. What do you do? First off, try with multiple search engines. I use Yahoo and Altavista an awful lot, and occasionally one of the smaller search engines like Webcrawler or Excite (which are growing steadily every minute). However, you have to know what you're searching for before you can enter that into the little "search-box" that appears on most of these sites. If you're just searching for any Kiowa legend at all, you can enter "Kiowa legends" into that box. Other suggestions include "Kiowa folklore", "Kiowa myths", "Saynday stories", or just "Native American myths". Any of these could theoretically find the Kiowa legends you're searching for (and the Saynday stories sample would likely find them quickly). But the search engines can't possibly know everything, so you find yourself still at a loss. What now, you ask? Well, that's not that easy, but it's not difficult, either. You try going to a Native American resource site, and follow the links from there. Some options are the site hosted by St. FXU university, the First Nations site, or the Kiowa website. You might find something off of one of those. But you still haven't found anything worth the search, and you're getting tired of searching... well, take a break. Come back to it in a week or so, and start with the search engines again first, running through all of your options. After all, sites change daily all over the Internet, and occasionally a smaller site could get passed over; it's a matter of time. A week passes, and your search still isn't fruitful. What do you do? Well, this is where the big search comes into play. You now have both the joy and the agony of digging all over the Internet, searching for anything that happens to mention the Kiowa at all. I would recommend starting at a search engine and typing in "Kiowa" or "Kiowa Indians", and seeing what comes up. You'll get personal pages, probably the tribal website, and half a dozen oddball links that make absolutely no sense. Go through them anyhow; it won't hurt, and you might find what you need. But if you still haven't, start at some of the different webrings or Native award-sites that are out there. Many of those deal with smaller pages that may or may not be picked up by the big search engines. The Native American "Who's Hot On The Web" award site is a good choice; from there, you'll find many other webrings and award sites which could potentially lead you to your buried online treasure. But if all of this doesn't work, don't worry; eventually, something will pop up. While the 'Net is huge and amazing, there still is no possible way that everything in existence is on there yet. Give all of us webcritters a few years; we'll get THAT fixed in almost no time! The sites listed in this article are: Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com AltaVista: http://www.altavista.com Webcrawler: http://www.webcrawler.com Excite: http://www.excite.com Native Resources from St. FXU: http://juliet.stfx.ca/people/fac/rmackinn/native.htm First Nations: http://www.firstnations.com Native American Who's Hot On The Web: http://www.cris.com/~misterg/award/whoshot.htm Native Web Site Evaluation: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ecubbins/webcrit.html The Official Wanabi Tribal Website: http://flamestrike.hacks.arizona.edu/~twohorse/two_horses/ Lori Fuller, like most of the technical revolution, would like to point out that she has a website, too. It even has Kiowa legends on it, hence the above example... she's done that search! Her site's located at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1569 |
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