In attempting to re-focus the direction of the NATIVE-L mailing list toward
matters of urgent importance to all indigenous peoples in all parts of the
world, I find that it has become necessary to exclude certain kinds of items
that have been carried on the list in the past. As I announced early last
year, most routine questions are no longer being carried on NATIVE-L (the
exceptions are questions which serve serious research purposes where the
researcher promises to make available the results of her/his research in
the form of a written report). A new mailing list specifically to handle
questions will be set up if and when I can find time to do the necessary
work to enable that list and an associated Web archive.
I have now decided to also eliminate announcements about informal events,
such as pow wows, that have been carried in the past on NATIVE-L. These
events are generally of interest only to people who live in the immediate
geographical vicinity where they are taking place, and there is generally
not enough lead time given in making the announcements for people to make
travel arrangements if they live outside the area.
My hope is that Shane Caraveo's "Native Events Calendar," which was announced
in an article carried on NATIVE-L on 18 January, will be able to serve the
need of handling announcements of this type. This calendar is available on
the Web at "http://www.caraveo.com/native/" and provides the ability to add
postings about all sorts of events pertaining to Native peoples. I have just
received a report that there is some problem at present in posting to this
list - so I've sent a message to Shane asking that he investigate and fix
whatever problem there might be. Because of this problem, and because this
policy has just been formally announced, I will relay a few articles that
announce pow wow events in the near future (at the University of California,
Berkeley, on 19 April, at Washington State University on 5-6 April, and on
the islands of Hawai`i and Maui at the end of May).
This policy does not affect the posting of conference announcements, which
tend to be made with greater lead-time, and are more likely to draw people
from outside the immediate geographical areas where they are being held than
are pow wows (however, the ones in the Hawaiian Islands mentioned above might
be exceptions, since it appears that a lot of planning has been done for
travel from outside the area and there is a lot of lead time being given in
making the announcement; I would be willing to consider such announcements in
future in the case of these kinds of conditions being met).
I regret the inconvenience that this new policy might cause some subscribers.
My hope is to enable NATIVE-L to focus better on matters of urgent importance
to indigenous peoples in all parts of the world, even though it means having
to cease carrying certain kinds of articles that we have handled in the past.
If anyone has any comments on this policy, please send them to me, using my
own address: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (do not respond to this article, because
doing so will send your message to the posting address for NATIVE-L).
Thanks for your understanding.
Regards,
Gary
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Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst