Opinion

Charles Trimble: Technology can play a role in preserving culture

Monday, January 31, 2011

I’m not the person who should be writing about technology and advising on its application to our traditional society. I’m a technological klutz. When I suggested to my daughter Kaiti that I am technologically challenged, she responded, “Dad, the phrase to describe you is ‘technologically retarded.’”

Kaiti’s right, of course. She’s a computer specialist with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. Whenever she comes home for a visit, we keep her busy updating our technology – from resetting clocks to fixing the stereo to showing me stuff I never knew my cell phone could do. For one thing, she tells me that I need a newer cell phone, and there are some models now that can do anything short of cooking dinner. She and her mother tease that my cell phone still has an old fashion dial on it.

But, just as my computer to me is a fancy typewriter and e-mailbox, my cell phone is mainly for any emergency I might encounter when traveling or taking my daily walk. I hate getting calls when I’m driving. Mostly I get calls from my wife and kid; I don’t give out my cell phone number because I don’t want people calling me, and besides, I would have to look it up to tell anyone what it is. I still haven’t memorized it although I’ve had it since I left my first cell phone in my pocket and it went through the washer and dryer four years ago.

One of my problems is that I don’t like to read directions. I’m not even a believer in the saying, “When all else fails, read the directions.” Now I’ve fallen so far behind in technology that I can’t understand the directions when I do read them. So, I’m left suspended in the technological Stone Age. But I’m happy; or maybe I should say, I’m not concerned because I don’t have too many remaining years to be left to grope around in the dark.

As for new-fangled doodads like the Kindle, which allows a person to carry the Library of Congress in his pocket, I still prefer real books – the kind with real paper pages, printed in ink. I donated my Western history and Indian libraries to the Institute of American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota, but still have many books that I have been meaning to read over the past half century.

Oftentimes I think back on my growing up years on the Pine Ridge Reservation, when no one even dreamed of computers, or of sending messages from the Rez to the far corners of the earth via internet (Internet? What’s that?). That was a time when in the reservation villages when only the government day schools and the local stores had telephones.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a classroom on either the Pine Ridge or the Rosebud reservation, but I have heard that most of them are state of the art in technology, at least with computers. And many young people out there have cell phones and other high tech gadgetry for games and communications. In many of the homes there is satellite or cable television, bringing news, entertainment and trash from all parts of the world. The youth are exposed far beyond the reservation borders. This is good, for the most part. But what does this portend for the tribes and our tribal cultures?

Several months ago I wrote a column "Suspended in Evolution” about adapting to new approaches in education and new technology as a means to preserving our precious age-old culture. In that column I wrote: “With cable or satellite TV in most reservation homes and computers in all reservation schools, our tribal youth will be increasingly alienated from their traditional roots by technology, especially when they see tribal beliefs and traditions as no longer relevant to their lives.”

But perhaps technology can be useful in preserving our cultures and traditions. There are studies in progress now about how to present history and culture in museums to again attract the young minds that have tuned out the museums for technology. That should be an example we might draw upon to see the chances of survival for our own cultures in future generations.

Charles "Chuck" Trimble, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1970, and served as Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1972-1978. He is retired and lives in Omaha, NE. He can be contacted at cchuktrim@aol.com and his website is www.iktomisweb.com.