Ride the Horse!

I should tell you I have been busy this last month. When I first stepped into the office, I was given a task of coordinating this new tutoring program. I was told that I had about "now" to get it ready.
It had all kinds of pitfalls, as any pilot project would. And it actually came together in the last five minutes before the reporters arrived. We couldn't get the hardware to work with the software. There were some compatibility issues, which gave me some issues. I was racing back from Spokane the very afternoon of the proposed press release with our new hardware. I got back with 61 minutes until we were supposed to release the program onto the world. I told the techie we had one hour to be up and running. (that would give us the requisite one minute to stop sweating and breathe normal, right?) Anyway, at 40 minutes we had six stations up and the software working very nicely. Not even five minutes later, the photographer arrived, which is nice...
I can't help but wonder at what the elders to the students in this program are thinking. Some of these kids are only two generations away from traditional native culture (language, subsistence, relationships, and home), and here they are talking away on their mini cams with teachers a world away. (48 miles away in Pullman, but still a world away as far as they are concerned) We have come from subsistence living (which is really not a bad thing, it's the natural way of living) to the world of technology and communication via computer work stations in a Tribal Technology center open to tribal and non-tribal alike.
No more tribal runners. No more trips to neighboring villages across the open fields on horseback. Now we make our way across the open fields on a specific bandwidth.
Technology is our new horse; it's infinite utility and innovation are what will carry our children into the future now. Wow, what a rush! I had such a small part in this whole evolution, but I'm proud to have done my little part.

Indianz.com

Seattle Times

Ride the horse baby, RIDE THE HORSE!!!!!!!