Reznet

RezKast founder Valerie Fast Horse stands in Red Spectrum Communications computer lab in Plummer, Idaho.Associated Press photo by Young Kwak

RezKast a YouTube for Native Americans

By Nicholas K. Geranios of The Associated Press

PLUMMER, Idaho (AP) — What do Native Americans wear on weekends? Hopeedee asked a series of white people.

Feathers, furs and buffalo skins, were the replies.

What do Native Americans do on weekends? Hopeedee, a 35-year-old Indian woman, asked.

Run buffalo off cliffs, one person offered.

The videotaped comments were from Hopeedee's recent posting on RezKast, a sort of YouTube for Indians operated by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.

From Silly to Serious, RezKast Shows Native Perspectives

RezKast offers a mix of the silly and the serious, including videos of Indian religious and cultural ceremonies, comedy bits, sporting events, travelogues and music videos, all from a Native American perspective.

It's part of the Coeur d'Alenes' commitment to making their people computer-savvy, said Valerie Fast Horse, director of information technology for the 1,900-member tribe in northern Idaho.

"There are very few tribes doing this," Fast Horse said. "I have very few peers in Indian country."

Rezkast was launched last July and has about 200 active posters, including Indians from across the United States and Canada, Fast Horse said.

Recent comedy offerings include a raunchy television weather report from a forecaster named "Red Cloud," a promo for a false television show called "C.S.I., Regina," and a video ad for "Indian Wal-Mart," which turned out to be a series of garbage trash bins. There was also a version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" sung to the pounding of Indian drums and featuring "six Indian tacos."

Other Sites Share Indian Content, Too

A regular poster to RezKast is Hope Mathews-Herrera of Oklahoma City, who said she goes there when she gets a "powwow Jones."

"I really like this site because you don't have to wade through all the clutter," the Comanche and Wichita Indian said. "There is a certain comfort zone here. It's the only truly interactive site out there that is actually for natives by natives, an actual nation."

RezKast is not alone. Other specific sites for Indians include MyTribalSpace.com and Native American Tube. But RezKast is the best for sharing videos, she said.

"I feel that just seeing ourselves online and interacting with other natives, can only strengthen our identity as Native Americans, which is important for urban Indians," Mathews-Herrera said.

Information Management Grad Brought Web to the Rez

Fast Horse graduated from North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene in computer science, and then joined the U.S. Army, where she worked in information management, including a tour in Operation Desert Storm. She decided she wanted to return to the reservation and bring the digital world to the tribe's reservation on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Fast Horse, a tribal council member, worked to secure a $2.8 million federal grant in 2002 that allowed the tribe to provide wireless service across its 345,000 acre reservation, which is mountainous and forested.

That work was done by 2005, Fast Horse said.

The tribe set up a large computer lab with 40 work stations where members could access the world. It's free to use the computer lab, although members must pay to have broadband access at home.

This People's Portal has even Become a Bus Stop

The lab is swamped with users after school, and has become a regular school bus stop, she said.

The tribe offers computer classes to members, including training on how to produce videos.

Fast Horse had long envisioned having a site where Indians could exchange videos, and RezKast was finally launched last July.

"We needed a portal for our own people," she said. "We needed a place to aggregate our content."

The Coeur d'Alenes have made great strides in the past decade, opening a lucrative casino and other businesses that employ many tribal members. Fast Horse believes the wireless access will now help the tribe develop knowledge-based businesses as well.

No Cultural Resistance to Technology

"We have a lot of talent," Fast Horse said.

The broadband service, called Red Spectrum Communications, is also a source of revenue for the tribe, as non-tribal members in towns around the reservation in Washington and Idaho are subscribing, she said

Despite the general impression that Indians are wedded to traditional things, Fast Horse said there is no cultural resistance to technology.

"We want to use technology to preserve our culture and language," she said.

She noted that the ways of many Native American tribes changed dramatically after they acquired horses in the 1600s.

"The computer is like the horse," she said.

Nicholas K. Geranios is an Associated Press staff writer.