NESPELEM, Wash. – The Colville Reservation now has a social Internet system in place that is probably unique in Indian country. Designed much like MySpace, this system – called ”One Heart for the People” – is intended to inform and organize Colville members in a grass-roots effort to unify the tribal membership.
The system was originated and designed by Ben-Alex Dupris, a tribal member who left the reservation when he was 19 to pursue a career in Hollywood as a professional actor and dancer. He eventually left, but says he returned to Los Angeles whenever he needed to recharge. Now in his early 30s and knowledgeable about such things as open source software, cloud computing and social networking, he has returned to the reservation.
”I wanted to do something for the tribe. I was looking at all the problems our tribes are facing today, particularly in this technological gap. Indian people are already so far behind in a lot of different areas and I thought a social network would be a good way to start, not to just say hi to friends, but to organize people and inform them about everything from funerals to political events to local basketball games.” In so doing it would also broaden computer knowledge among many who are still unfamiliar or uncomfortable with computers.
The name came about in discussions with colleague John Sirois, with whom Dupris had worked on the language program. They wanted a name that would encompass the entire membership and all the different bands on this confederated reservation.
”Our relations used to say to get together under one heart and have a prayer,” Dupris said. Thus One Heart was born. Its logo is in the shape of the reservation in blood red, he said, ”to kind of show those district lines don’t exist anymore, that the family extends throughout our reservation.”
Dupris bought the domain name and used the Photoshop graphics editing program to design the idea. It’s on an open-source network under a company called Ning. Four years ago such a system would have cost roughly $250,000, but advancements now make it practically free. ”You use the framework they provide and you can tailor it to fit your needs,” he explained.
He saw it as a site where people could put aside their differences. The reservation has four voting districts and nearly 1.3 million acres. ”A lot of politics are very divisive and based on who gets elected to the council from each district. These politics are separating the way we see each other as tribal membership,” he said.
The site was up and running around the first of December. ”I sent it out to my mom, John and a few others. We had 15 people the first weeks, then it started to grow. Now, just two and a half months later, it has more than 540 members and everyone is invited. Most are Colville people or friends of the Colvilles.”
Dupris still has lots of ideas for additions and improvements.
”The idea was freedom of the press and transparency of government and accountability, all the issues the general membership is concerned about when it comes to tribal politics, language preservation and community,” Dupris said. ”Eventually I want to expand to have different games, an online petition forum and to work with the language program. There’s a program called Moodle that universities use to teach their students. We’re going to start a parallel Moodle site to get into tribal language where the teacher can have direct access to students. We will use that parallel to get into language preservation.”
Dupris said he wants to encourage Native people to use technology to its potential.
”We’re watching the technological revolution happen and we’re not participating and learning how to take on these 21st century advancements,” Dupris said. ”This is a great starting place to increase knowledge and awareness and escape the bounds.”
Dupris commented that one interesting thing is the membership’s demographics: ”It’s not just the young hotshot kids who know about technology, but it’s also the councilmen, our elders, people who say they’ve felt disconnected from the tribe for years.
”When you go to the site, you’re going to see Colville tribal members. That’s the big sell. It allows those who have moved away to stay in touch or perhaps young people who have never lived here to find people who can help trace their linage back. It’s a feeling of what the 21st century, entertainment and social world for Native people is going to be.
”It’s the beginning of an exciting time.”
