The virtual rez: Diné stake out presence on Facebook

Are you an FBI? That's "Facebook Indian" for the uninitiated, and if you recognized that acronym (originated by former Navajo Times reporter Levi Long on his Facebook site), chances are excellent that you are.

I joined Facebook a couple of years ago because I thought it would be a good reporting tool. Unfortunately, the potential sources I try to friend generally figure out I'm a reporter and hit the "ignore" button.

Meanwhile, everyone from my old college roommate to a guy I think I sat next to in high school physics class have found me and friended me, so I have this busy virtual life that I do not really need, seeing as how I can barely keep up with my three-D, real-world-type life. (So stop sending me the virtual margaritas and little huggy bears already! You know who you are.)

Anyhow, it didn't take long to notice, since many of my Facebook friends are Navajo, what a nice little virtual rez the Diné FBIs have carved out for themselves on the social networking site.

There is, of course, the Navajo Times' Facebook site, which we were sort of coerced into creating after an unauthorized person tried to do it for us.

But there is also Navajo Gift Shop, where you can send someone a virtual bowl of mutton stew or a wedding basket (and, yes, a Navajo Times!), along with quizzes like "Are you a truly rezzed out Navajo?" (I actually scored pretty high on that one.)

There is a site called Being Navajo, created just this past summer, that already has 1,590 fans. Members have started discussion threads on what it means to be Diné, whether or not they would move back to the reservation, and Navajo Nation politics, as well as linking to thought-provoking articles.

I couldn't find any statistics on how many Facebook users are Diné (although I did run into an online tirade by a sociologist on "white flight" from MySpace to Facebook, so somebody somewhere must keep racial tallies on social networking sites).

As of Monday the Navajo Times Facebook site had 1,886 fans, and it seems like we lure in a few more every day. Not all of them are Diné, but the vast majority are.

To see how Navajos are using the social networking site, I checked my page and sent a note via the "chat" function to all my Navajo friends who happened to be online.

Gallup filmmaker Norman Patrick Brown: "I use Facebook to create awareness for my professional and creative work. To positively promote dialogue to advocate for change here on Navajo. Also to promote Navajo cultural ideals ... but most importantly to be part of a world community and share our fight for justice and peace for mankind."

Wow! He's like a virtual superhero!

As we chatted, social worker Trudie Jackson was doing her part for peace and justice, creating a Facebook site for the Arizona American Indian HIV/AIDS Task Force.

"Since technology is playing a vital role in society, this is a great way of communicating," she typed. "I noticed there are places on the rez that offer free WiFi."

Monty "Tee" White of remote Hard Rock Chapter uses Facebook "to keep in contact with both friends and work people."

"It's funny," he wrote, "maybe because I'm so rural, I usually hear about things first through Internet networking rather than in person or on the phone. Can't live without my Internet service!"

My colleague Jan-Mikael Patterson looks at Facebook as a way of gathering in the Diné diaspora.

"We update one another on things if some of us couldn't be there," he wrote. "Like the fairs, powwows, concerts, rodeos. Some post pics, like when the McDonald's sign fell (in Window Rock) immediately people posted and responded within minutes. I have a lady online now who is giving people limited amount of free concert tickets to a Brian McKnight show at the Gila River Casino on Nov. 10."

"Uh huh," echoed entrepreneur Patty Dimitriou of Scottsdale, Ariz. "For example, I surf the Navajo Times site and post stories that I think are of interest to the urban Navajos on the Phoenix Indian Center FB page."

Local celeb James June of the comedy duo James and Ernie often waxes witty on his site, giving fans a free refill of his trademark humor between concerts.

And the tradition of chapter gossip is alive and well on Facebook. Several Diné chatters recommended people I should friend because they're always in the know and ready to spill.

So ... maybe joining Facebook wasn't such a waste of my professional time after all. I got a column out of it, anyway.