As the use and reliance on information technology continues to increase within our information-based world, concerns of globalization and the Internet become pertinent issues of study. The use of the Internet as a space where both supratribal and tribal specific communities are constructed, group and cultural identity is asserted, and connectivity is fostered—specifically between participants and more broadly between multiple websites—represents Native Americans’ dynamic and continuous adjustment to life in an increasingly globalized world. The distinction between supratribal and tribal specific websites demonstrate ways in which native groups utilize to global communication technology differently. Supratribal groups move towards embracing the heterogenic pan-Indian unifying potentials of the Internet, while tribal specific groups react in an overtly localized manner, carving a distinct niche online by continuously reproducing dimensions of offline culture.

As shown in this study, local physicality is a prominent element on tribal specific pages, allowing groups to distinctly represent themselves in a communicative arena open to observation and interaction. These pages provide a new context to reaffirm the traditional anthropological notion that “place” plays an immense role in the formation of identity for many cultural groups. References to offline cultural identity and physical space proved to be frequent components to constructing community as well as asserting group identity and social boundaries in groups observed in this study, suggesting disembodied multiplicity is not a primary characteristic in the use of cyberspace. These groups serve as concrete examples that use of the Internet does not immediately presume users assume new identities and cultural identity is inexplicably filtered away. Tribal specific groups deterritorialize themselves by asserting representations through a medium of global dimensions and simultaneously reterritorialise themselves in this new environment by reproducing socio-physical boundaries consistent with local offline space. The construction of tribal specific websites provide a platform in which identity is directly tied to location, recursively acting together within a dynamic relationship and continuously changing with local elements such as social, physical, economic, and political factors.

In contrast, the inter-tribal powwow functions as a unifying public arena where participants construct a broader pan-Indian identity and community based upon a common web of cultural identity, history, and experience. The emergence of the American Indian Movement and inter-tribal powwows allow members to negotiate between a tribal specific and pan-Indian identity, demonstrating instances of multiplicity originating offline. Supratribal websites appear to be supremely rooted in these same processes, proliferating a broader Native American identity by linking specific tribal groups based upon their similarities, opposed to distinctive differences. Although supratribal websites work towards forging a broader Native identity, creating the opportunity for multifluous navigation, this function paradoxically represents continuity by projecting prior social processes and concepts of pan-Indian identity online.

As reviewed in this study’s introduction, Barth’s (1969) seminal work Ethnic Groups and Boundaries places emphasis on a group’s social organization rather than its cultural identity or history. Participants continuously signify their culture in new and diverse ways without losing their collective group identity or personal ascription to it.
Social, physical, and symbolic boundaries are crossed and groups as well as their participants are not solely characterized by their cultural traits, such as material culture, rituals, and traditions, but rather their organization. It remains that cultural traits do not define social organization as much as social organization defines what is understood by culture (Christensen, 2003). Thus, the appearance of information technology in Native American life is not significant, but rather the way in which technology is used in regard to social organization. Although the emergence of tribal specific and supratribal online groups may play a role in members’ organization in both broad and specific scopes, they are largely symbolic representations of longstanding offline groups or movements. Social and physical boundaries forming ethnic distinction, group identity, and community online appear to be continuous reproductions of offline culture and social processes within a new context, opposed to entirely new constructions. The Internet does provide an expansive arena for communication, surpassing constraints of geographical distance and tribal displacement, allowing participants to form connections, commonalities, and ultimately communities. At the same time, these communicative processes are characterized by continuity, suggesting they are not fundamentally new or transformative, but rather reproductions offline social processes and cultural identity.

It is not only the content, however, that plays a role in shaping the community and its representation. The structure of websites also plays a key role in signifying cultural values and objects, asserting ethnic distinctions, as well as reproducing social organization. Formation of identity and community is a relational process. As seen in the network visualizations, the broader relational structure among multiple websites provides a meaningful context to view the emergence cultural identity and social organization on the Internet. Structural decisions play an essential part in cohesively establishing significant relationships among objects of content, reproducing cultural identity, creating key points of commonality, and shaping participants’ perception of the website. Similar to how social organization signifies the cultural objects it encapsulates, structural decisions provide a contextual platform to assemble meaning among objects of content.

The supratribal and tribal specific websites analyzed in this study vary in scope, intended audience, and substance; nonetheless the concepts of community, representation of identity, and connectivity collectively play a fundamental role in the construction and continuation of these groups online. Each of these groups maintains a distinct website composed of carefully structured text, images, and hyperlinks, which reflect the nature and meaning of the group. From this assemblage, participants identify points of commonality and make connections between each other, producing group identity, providing the foundation of the community, and signifying culture. Each website uniquely uses content and structure to dynamically reproduce group-defining social boundaries. I acknowledge the significance of social organization to shape identity, however it is important, particularly within the context of the Internet, to recognize the social use of cultural traits to assert distinction. Social boundaries are directly related to the manner in which participants use different symbols, text, images, hyperlinks, to actively construct distinction, connections, community, and represent identity. At the same time, these symbols and cultural traits are insignificant without social relations to signify their meaning. Community, identity representation, and connectivity dynamically work together within websites explored in this study to foster social interaction and relation, which fundamentally characterizes the recursive relationship between social organization and cultural content.

This study is an account of selected websites created by complex and dynamically changing cultural groups within the evolving parameters of the Internet. This selection does not represent a finite representation of Native American websites or Native American use of the Internet. This study does offer insight into how social processes and cultural symbols are reproduced, communities are constructed, and identity is represented on the Internet. In this case, the Internet may not offer a fundamentally new or transforming communicative environment, however that is not to say it has not had a revolutionary impact on groups in both local and global dimensions. As we move toward the future, the Internet will undoubtedly endure as a main component of contemporary globalization, providing a space for distinct ethnic group reproductions as well as the continued structuring of broader global social networks of indigenous peoples.