RedMan11

Please visit User:Leo1410/Anishinaabe, where we are trying to classify and improve articles related to the Ojibwa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississauga, Nipissing, Oji-Cree, and Algonkin. Anything you could contribute would be much appreciated. (Leo1410 12:31, 3 October 2006 (UTC))

Hi there!

Hi. I largely agree with your suggestions on the project page: it's very obvious that a lot of the pages here, particularly on religion and politics, are lacking a native voice. I just wanted to ask that each time you leave a comment on a talk page you sign it - just add at the end of your message four tildes (like this ~~~~) and Wikipedia does the rest. Just makes it easier to follow who said what! Vizjim 07:13, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

And also!

A supplementary thought. I see from your user page that you're looking to correct a lot of the bias and half-truths on Wikipedia. As I said above, I can see some of these biases that you talk about. I'm not American, never mind from an indigenous nation, so I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of it, but too much of this encyclopedia is definitely based on half-truths and poor anthropological research. However, as you say you are new to Wikipedia, I wanted to point out a couple of policy pages that you will probably come into conflict with as you proceed.

Firstly, you should definitely have a careful read of the "no original research" and "what Wikipedia is not" pages. The most important statement on any of these is that: Articles may not contain any previously unpublished arguments, concepts, data, ideas, statements, or theories. Moreover, articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material (such as arguments, concepts, data, ideas, or statements) that serves to advance a position.

What this means is that if you can't produce published sources, preferably but not essentially ones that are online, you may find your work questioned or deleted as "political". The problem with this, of course, is that Wikipedia largely reproduces conqueror's history as fact. Sources from the oral tradition or from experience are without weight here because anybody can claim to have heard stories from elders or to have been at a particular event. Wikipedia's entirely voluntary workforce (you and me) just doesn't have time to check such claims in the way a publisher would, so only published articles or books from reputable sources will be allowed.

What I'm trying to urge you to do, in a round about way admittedly, is to always provide sources for statements that might get attacked or dismissed by others. "We Have The Right To Exist" by Wub-e-ke-niew, which is available in its entirety at http://www.maquah.net/We_Have_The_Right_To_Exist/WeHaveTheRight_03TOC.html, might be a useful source for Anishinaabe-related work in particular (as well as being an interesting read).

I hope that this is of use to you and would like to wish you luck in your work here. If I can be of any use, please do not hesitate to ask - just go to my talk page and leave a message. Vizjim 07:32, 6 October 2006 (UTC)