On the northern edge of Taos there is a turnoff that takes you to the Taos Pueblo. It is one of eight pueblos in Northern New Mexico, and it is one of those dedicated to preserving local traditions and language. Inhabited for more that 1000 years, it is UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts visitors from all over the world. Each pueblo has its own rules about what part of their culture is shared with outsiders. This translates into different rules for the use of technology. Something as basic as writing (an older but well-developed technology) is fine for English but not for Tiwa, the language spoken by some of the Taos pueblo members. Some pueblos have special alphabets and allow others to learn the language. Tiwa is only for members of the pueblo, but keeping it alive is proving to be a big challenge because they are so close to the dominant language in the area, and one person noted that with the advent of television the spoken language began to fade.

I met with Shawn Duran who works on youth education projects and was a MIRA team member. She introduced me to Cory Suazo and Thomas Lujan. When they first applied for the MIRA project they planned to do a web page for the tribe. However, the New Mexico cluster did not qualify until the second year, and they shifted their focus to a computer access center. Cory had graduated from Brandeis and was used to having fast access to a wide range of information as well as the Internet. At the tribal offices there was a shortage of phone lines, and during the day nobody in the lab was allowed to use the Internet because the line was needed for business. As we talked several people went about their business in the spacious room where machines lined the walls. Their MIRA team had been publishing a print newsletter, which was distributed at the tribal offices, the casino, and the post office, but thieves broke in, stole their publishing system, and vandalized other computers. Luckily they received some Gateway machines from the Gates Foundations one of which they are configuring for the publishing of the newsletter, and they are waiting on a spread spectrum high-speed wireless connection to the Internet. La Plaza says they will not have to pay for one year, and this will radically change the kind of access the tribe will have.

Our conversation turned to other indigenous groups that were trying to preserve language. They explained that their language is closely tied to the religion, which is not something they share with outsiders, and since it is not written it will be hard to pass along, though they do have an immersion program for kids. This type of program where only the target language is used has been very successful in New Zealand with the Maori as well as in Hawaii.

Both Cory and Thomas are influenced by both the traditions of Taos but also the possibilities of using ICT to reinforce those traditions. Their goal is the use the technology to help convince some of the more conservative members that it is not a threat. The week before I arrived the digital storytelling workshop was given again in Taos, and Thomas had made his story to reflect some of these very issues. Unfortunately, they had not received the finished CD-ROM from the Center for Digital Storytelling.