Cultural Identity Restoration and Purposive Website Design: A Hermeneutic Study of the Chickasaw and Klamath Tribes

In this paper, we employ a hermeneutic approach to examine the question: How do cultural productions of websites enable enactments of power, change, and society in Native American groups? We collected longitudinal data from 15 redesigns of the Chickasaw Nation and Klamath Tribes websites. Text from each website redesign, as well as each redesign of the tribes' "History" pages, was analyzed using linguistic inquiry and word count software. These texts and other design elements were examined from an interpretive perspective. Our analyses depicts the role of website design in the production of culture. Furthermore, we find support for the notion that although technology adoption has traditionally occurred parallel to globalization and aided in assimilation, tribal organizations are now finding ways to use technology for constructive purposes such as cultural preservation, identity restoration and healing.