BS Mass Communications, University of Southern Colorado, Pueblo
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| Brenda holds up the computer’s power chord while Western Apache elders from San Carlos and Camp Verde begin the naming process. |
The title of my thesis is “Integrating Computer Technology with Western Apache Culture.” In this first person narrative, I share my experience of working with Western Apache elders and tribal members to accomplish two goals: first, to have tribal elders, the “true experts” of their language, name the computer, its components, and peripheral devices in the Apache language, thus fulfilling a practical need giving college students the choice to receive their computer setup instructions in their native tongue; and second, to create a prototype of the computer operating system’s graphic-user interface (GUI) originating in the Western Apache world view. Although it is challenging to adapt computer technology to culture, it can be done.
These projects were unique in that I was joined by undergraduate students from the Visual Communications and Computer Science Departments to apply what we were learning in the classroom toward solving a real world problem. The objective of my thesis is to share this experience with anyone interested in adapting computer technology to culture. It is my sincere hope that others will be able to learn from our mistakes as well as our successes. By the way, if you are working on something similar, I would love to hear about it.
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| Brenda (right) and April Hakini of San Carlos use information provided by Apache elders to assign Apache language descriptions to computer hardware. Photo by Don Decker. |
The MLS program at NAU has given me an educational opportunity of a lifetime! Nowhere else would I have been able to combine education, applied linguistics, computer technology, and Western Apache culture. As for the latter, I did not learn about Apache culture from any one book or even a class but from Apache elders and tribal members themselves while in the field. Field work, if approved, counts toward your departmental requirements. In my particular case, the beauty of the MLS program is that it has allowed me to build on my current interests while providing me with the flexibility to earn a master’s degree while creating something that has a real, practical application.
Since completing my MLS degree, I have been invited to join an international forum for those interested in adapting computer software to indigenous languages. I will also be working with the San Carlos Apache Tribe on a number of cultural preservation (or cultural archival – depending oh how you view it) projects in which I will teach college interns how to create publications and other types of computer generated media. In addition, I have begun my seventh year of directing a computer program that distributes computers to Apache college students. In the year to come, I am hoping to expand this program and turn it into an official non-profit organization.