Thoughts on Cyberspace, Networks and Poker

Aboriginal Networking in Cyberspace; Online Poker and Virtual Self-Determination

Notes for Online presentation by Dr. Mike Patterson (Carleton University Ottawa) to CIÉRA - Centre interuniversitaire d'études et de recherches authochtones/Interuniversity Centre for Aboriginal Studies and Research, Laval University, Apr. 16 2009.

Virtuel Abo Networks Tour

· This tour through Native cyberspace, networks, and gaming and chat rooms, will explore worlds of Aboriginal networking and business, national and international issues of jurisdiction touching on First Nations self-determination, and also perhaps the future of online gaming. Questions and comments are greatly encouraged, as the confluence and/or nexus of these issues is a matter for ongoing exploration. In other words this is very much a Work in Progress.

· NETWORKING Cyberspace is another powerful adoption of new technology by Aboriginal or Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. The number of Aboriginal oriented websites (many called American Indian) has more than kept pace with the general growth of the Web. Native websites range from those prepared by school children to those promoting Native business, values, culture, and information sharing, and number in the tens of thousands today. There are also hundreds of listservs and chat rooms. Frosty (Ron Deere from Kahnawake) put together one of the first Listservs in the mid-90s: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frostysamerindian/ As part of my early journeys in (or to?) cyberspace, I sought to add to what was going on, some 15 years ago: http-server.carleton.ca/~mpatters/moccasin.html

· I realized I would never keep up with sites such as: http://www.turtleisland.org/ in the US and http://gatheringplacefirstnationscanews.ca/index.htm here at Six Nations.

· I then went to work on the radio with Gary Farmer: http://www.aboriginalvoices.com/ A primary network for Aboriginal peoples, is it still the way ahead?.

· Arts from Winnipeg; ConunDrum: http://www.conundrumonline.org/

· Algonquin artist Claude Latour (Shingosi): http-server.carleton.ca/~mpatters/shingosi/index.html

· Informing Health Policy: Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network: http://www.caan.ca/ Stigma and double-discrimination; Hot Spots (Regina).

· Informing Health Policy: National Aboriginal Health Organization: http://www.naho.ca/english/ Too close to the Fort? Colonial?

· GAMES AS NETWORK Games are some of the earliest ways that humans learn to interact with one another; they are a universal language. First Nations people have always been gamblers, from the peach stone game of the Iroquois to stick, bone and hand-drum games of the Ojibwe, western Cree, and west coast Kootenay and Gitskan peoples, and the horse racing (and betting) of plains Indians such as Blackfoot and Stoney.

· Like these, poker is a game, which brings together gaming and game theory, much-respected niches in mathematics, economics, and social life. Today, we have a tremendous, worldwide, language-no-barrier community brought together in cyberspace by gaming sites such as Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Party Poker – names that now resonate in mainstream culture. Networks are growing around this activity.

· Natives are increasingly participating in the global economy, and the knowledge economy. Building technological skills and is key to education, employment and self-sustainability. One of those means of participation is games.

· National Indian Gaming Association represents 186 nations in the US: http://www.indiangaming.org/

· RUNNING NETWORKS The Kahnawake Gaming Commission in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake in Québec was established in 1996 to license and regulate online casinos and poker rooms. Existing somewhere between their semi-autonomous First Nations territorial status, and jurisdictional indecision regarding legislation and enforcement of online gaming (international, federal, provincial), the KGC has become a world leader in hosting and regulating poker sites – there are almost 1,000 sites hosted there today. http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/ Post colonial?

· Two of the most prominent of those, Absolute Poker and Ultmatebet, which recently suffered an insider cheating scandal, are owned by Chief Joe Norton. Kahnawake, a leader in the development of online gaming, and now a subject of international interest, and scrutiny, is a nexus for the issues of online gaming: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/search.php?searchid=7847090 Golden Palace was prosecuted in Québec; Major sites have moved offshore to Malta, Aruba, Isle of Man, Cyprus and other locales.

· Is Online Gaming a Red Road to Self-Determination or a Red Herring? Can we re-create the American Tribal gaming model in cyberspace as brick and mortar crumbles in the new economy?

· The Net has increasing power over the future of groups such as First Nations divorced from the institutions and agencies of government; cyberspace in and of itself is an agent of change. “With a multimedia computer the Internet becomes a multimedia system, featuring sound and graphics and video…” It allows remote communities to communicate and access the latest information, it can support culture, and “our Nations will be able to speak more quickly and directly than ever before” on the Internet (Morrisson 1995). Cyberspace is crucial for the survival of Aboriginal peoples: “We missed the Industrial Revolution. We will not miss the Information Technology Revolution. Our citizens, and especially our youth, are ready to take full advantage of this revolution and the possibilities offered. I will strive to ensure that they have that opportunity” (Matthew Coon Come 2001): http://www.fnschools.ca/ , http://www.cradleboard.org/

· Natives must prioritize the adoption of IT to avoid falling deeper into the digital divide in Canada, and in cyberspace. As with the horse, Native peoples have to adopt this new technology, and move into this new space. It is another case of needing to adopt the White man’s ways, while maintaining Native traditions ¾ Two Worlds, and the Two-Row Wampum (Kahswhentha): http://www.reclamationinfo.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1633