Gyasi Ross: Counting all the real Indian people on Facebook

Tuesday, January 31, 2012  

"Facebook has replaced pow-wow parking lots, Haskell, AISES/NCAI/other major Indian conferences and Santa Fe Indian Market as the leading place for Indian singles to snag up their prospective mates. If we are to believe a website called “Search Engine Watch,” there may be more self-identified Skins on Facebook than there are Asians, Blacks or Hispanics.

Now since there are only about 173 Indians that live outside the state of Oklahoma, (FYI, in Oklahoma the State officially banned Facebook because, in the words of the Governor, “It’s the devil because Pat Robertson did not accept my friend request”), Natives seem to be doing a very good job of bridging that digital divide for social/romantic purposes. It’s a good statistic, at first glance—it means that many more Natives than we might initially expect have increasing access to the internet and are savvy enough to join social networking sites.

Still, I call cow feces on those numbers—they just don’t make sense."

Get the Story:
Gyasi Ross: How I Met Your Mother (on Facebook, of Course) (Indian Country Today 1/30)