This document must be read before sending any email!
What is the purpose of this site?
This site is constructed primarily to provide information resources to the Native American community and only secondarily to the general community. The information is organized, insofar as possible, to make it useful to the Native American community and the education community. The information presented here is the product of much cooperative work. It would be impossible to maintain this list without the email from the hundreds of people who send me updates to their URLs and report new sites. This email is crucial to the operation of this index. The list of "don'ts" given below is simply to make the sorting through of my email a less difficult task. Please do not stop sending me this crucial information.
If you want to chat with some Native Americans and others who are interested in Native Americans, I have listed webboards and discussion boards on the Other Resources Index.
As an additional resource, a second page of responses to the questions that I receive most frequently is available.
Are there known important sites known to me that are not listed in this index?
No, every relevant site which comes to my attention is listed in the Index of Native American Resources on the Internet. If you cannot find what you are seeking, email to me will not help turn up sites that are not listed here. Try using the Search this site search engine for the site. A link to this search engine is also available from the front page of the site. If you have no luck there, try some of the Internet wide search engines. Be sure to use information sources such as encyclopaedias to obtain synonyms for the words that you will seach on. You may not find what you are looking for simply because you did not use the best keywords to search on. Use several.
This web site is maintained by an individual, not an organization. The maintenance of the site is done on an entirely volunteer basis. No payment is received for work on this site. The one person who keeps the site up is the site maintainer Karen M. Strom. She is not a Native American.
Every night all of the links on one or more pages of this index are automatically checked to find the broken links. The next morning, the logs for these runs are checked. The broken links are repaired, if possible, or marked as broken in the hope that someone will provide the current address for the site. A few people have been so kind as to provide updates. However, this automatic link checking will miss some sites that have been moved and a page giving the new address put in that place. If you encounter this situation, please email me the new site address.
Yes, both the text and the graphics are copyrighted. They may not be used on any other sites! The logo for this site is for use on this site only. It is not intended to be used to confer credibility to your site. Likewise, you may not copy the text from this site and place it on your site.
Will you perform research on the Internet for me?
I will not do research for others. I provide this index to online information so that you can do your own research. Please learn to do your own research. You may find it fulfilling. Also learn to use search engines. The most powerful and long lasting learning is that done on your own.
Teachers : Please do not tell your students to email me for information. Do a simple calculation. A minimum of 1500 people a day visit this site. (That is considerably more people than you have in your classes.) If only 1% of these people sent me an email with a query, I would be (am) swamped with such email. Most of these questions can be answered by people doing their own research in books or on the Internet, but they need to learn how to proceed. Teach your students how to do research for themselves. That is what this index of resources is for. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of classrooms working on Native American related projects. I can not be a personal resources of all of those classes. Because it is simple to send an email question does not mean that it should be done. I wish to spend the time I have available creating resources, not helping those who don't/won't learn how to use them properly.
Do not expect to find everything you are looking for on the Net. It is simply not there. Much of it will not be there for a long time, if ever. Use books; use your school library; use the public library. Consider the Internet just one more source of information/misinformation. Expect to apply the same scepticism toward information that you find on the Web as you do in other parts of your life. Since everyone is able to publish now, there is a lot of bad information mixed with the good. Choose your information from reliable sources.
Will you answer questions about spirituality/Native American consciousness/ritual?
No, not only am I not the correct person to ask about these topics, are you sure that you even have the right to ask the question? Such questions will be immediately deleted, unless, of course, they are of such a nature that they deserve to be placed in my kook email file.
Also note that I will not place links to New Age sites in this index.
Will you give me legal advice?
No, I am not the right person to ask for legal advice. I have no legal training and no experience in the field. I'm afraid you will have to pay for the advice.
Will you help me find money for my part Native American kids?
No. First, if they are only part "Native American" and you don't know what tribe that "Native American" belonged to, you haven't done your part of the work. If you do know, you must contact that tribal office. If your child qualifies as a tribal member, there still may, or may not, be any support for educational expenses.
No, I am not available as a shopping consultant. Please use the search engine provided and internet wide search engines to do your own shopping!
Will you help me find a museum to accept my donation of Native American art?
No, I am not a representative of any museum(s) and only have detailed knowledge of a few. You should use the links to museums that are provided here to examine the interests and holdings of the museums before you approach any to offer your collection.
Will you help me identify the artist/appraise my piece of art?
No, I do not recommend appraisers nor do I appraise art myself. It is impossible to know all of the Native American artists who are working now, or who have ever been collected. This is not my specialty and I will not answer such email.
Will you help me find old friends?
No, I am not available to help find your old friends. Again, use the standard online services.
What knowledge does the site maintainer have of Native American languages?
Very little. Email on that question is useless and thus will be ignored. Use the links in the Index of Native American Language Resources that are provided for you.
How do I submit a URL to this site to be listed?
If you wish to submit a URL for consideration for this index, read the page on URLs first! Note that this is not a commercial index. Its purpose is not to advertise your wares. The purpose is to make information available to and for the Native American community. Commercial sites not owned/operated by Native Americans must supply information useful to this community in order to be considered for listing.
I also will not list links to cultural information, such as stories, unless the information is provided by an "official" tribal site or a site that might be expected to "own" that information. I realize that this is not foolproof, but it is the best that I can do. For issues of cultural property, see the Line in the Sand site.
No, you cannot. As stated above, I am an individual; I am not the IRS or the BIA, nor do I care to be. I do not investigate all that claim to be non-profit organizations. First, I do not have the resources; second, my standards might be quite different from those of the IRS in granting such status. If I have substantial evidence of misleading claims on the part of an organization, I will not list that organization. However a single email from out of the blue will not succeed in removing an organization from this list. You are just as responsible for making your own decisions about contributing to organizations soliciting funds on the Web as you are for those using snail mail or going door to door. For information on non-profit organizations and their use of funds see National Charities Information Bureau, Philanthropic Advisory Service Reports from the Better Business Bureau, or GuideStar, the donor's guide to the nonprofit universe. Even here, remember that the information comes from the organization itself, although you will find that there is at least one large organization claiming to collect donations for the benefit of Native Americans which refuses to supply any information to these rating services.
The same is true about the listing of Native owned businesses or home pages. I am in no position to ask for tribal membership cards nor do I feel the necessity to do so. While I personally may not like some of the pages that are listed here, I recognize the diversity that exists within all populations and also recognize that uniformity of opinions and taste is unhealthy for any society. There are certain to be "mistakes" of inclusion in these lists, in the opinion of some, but that is one penalty of having an open society.
Also see Elaine Cubbins page on Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Websites.
Can I place an advertising banner on this site?
Will you exchange links with me?
I do not accept solicitations for advertisements. I select a few advertisers where I can select the advertisements shown. I have rejected all proposals for advertisements that have been submitted to me.
I do not "exchange links" with other sites. You can not determine which sites I list here. As stated above, all relevant sites will be listed here, whether or not a reverse link to this site is placed on that site. The links placed on other sites are the choice of the person running that site. The links on this site are to the sites I feel should be listed here, and only those sites. Please do not send me an email requesting to "exchange links!"
Can I request information to be mailed to me?
No. There is no material to mail and no resources for mailing material if such existed.
Can I get help finding my ancestors or other geneaology information by email?
No, do not send email about such topics; it will be ignored. Use the Index of Native American Genealogy Resources provided for that purpose.
Can I be placed in contact with someone via email?
No. I will not act as intermediary between two people who don't know each other and neither of whom I know. That is much too dangerous. Do not ask.
Can I get help with my AOL/WebTV/Browser XXX setup by email?
No, there is no association of this site with any of these services. Contact either your system manager or the service for help.
Is there an email announcement service associated with this site?
No, there is no email announcement service simply because the site is usually updated every day. Such a service would serve no purpose and would only further clog the Internet.
Why are chat sites not listed here?
This is an index of information sources. I do not consider chat rooms to be in the same category.
May I list my email address on this site? / Can you tell me the email address for xxxxxx ?
This site is not a phone book service. If you wish to make your email address more widely known, use the service at www.whowhere.com. Try the same site to find an email address that you need.
Should I send protest email to this site?
Sending a protest email to this site serves no purpose. An Index of Activist sites exists. Many of the sites listed here provide a way to send your email to the BIA, theWhitehouse, your Governor, Representative or Senator, or to a person involved in each individual protest action. Make use of these sites.
Can I get help planning my vacation travel here?
As stated above, this is not a commercial site. There are many websites whose sole purpose is to help you plan your travel, both your transportation and your accomodations. Use these sites. There are no travel brochures to send or weather reports to give out. There are a few Native run tourist services listed in the Index of Native American Commercial Resources.
Why did I not get a response to my email?
If none of the above questions apply to your request, be sure that you are sending from a valid email address, your own. Do not send me email from an open access terminal in a library or other such general access space. There is no way possible to answer such an email. It is extremely frustrating to answer the question of someone that you do not know and then have the email bounce because that person has not used a valid email address. Please be sure that I can reply to the email address that you use. However, note that, if the contents of the email message indicate that this FAQ was not carefully read, it will simply be ignored/deleted.
The above rules all assume that you are an adult. I am more liberal with young people who wish to learn and have less experience in searching for information. However, please do not ask me for material which there is no possibility that I can supply.
I have also prepared a page of answers to the questions that I am most commonly asked. Please read this page before even thinking of sending me an email request.
If after reading all of this, you are sympathetic to my plight and have a need to send me a request, then please use the link below to do so. Note again, if the contents of the email message indicate that this FAQ was not carefully read, it will simply be ignored/deleted.
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