From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
Subject: Native BBS's
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 22:34:14 GMT

In <Dana_Huggard.02hw@tfbbs.wimsey.bc.ca> (Dana Huggard) writes:

> Does anyone know of,Have lists of or run a Native BBS?
>
> I know of the fidonet backbone Native Issues echo. Would like to know more.

You might be interested in the NativeNet mailing lists.  One of them, called
"NATCHAT" (run via LISTSERV at TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU) is linked to the "alt.native"
Usenet newsgroup.

Here's a description of these mailing lists and how they work:


[This is a portion of the NN-INTRO PURPOSE description which you can obtain
from the TAMVM1 LISTSERV, using instructions given below.]

File:         NN-INTRO PURPOSE (abbreviated)
Last update:  1 June 1992
Author:       Gary S. Trujillo  (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us)

What has come to be known as NativeNet began in the fall of 1989, following
my attendance at a conference at Smith College in Northampton Massachusetts
(described below), when I sought to describe some of my feelings about that
experience to a few electronic correspondents who I felt shared my interest
in the subject.  An interesting enough dialogue developed that I decided to
establish a mailing list and to attempt to actively facilitate a discussion
on a broad range of subjects relating to indigenous people and their issues,
which I have come to feel are really "our" issues, whoever we are, in an
increasingly interdependent world society.

I have operated this mailing list by means of a fairly small UNIX-based
system in my own home, on which I've implemented software which handles
the mailing list message relay function.  In the summer of 1991, the bulk
of the mailing list was transferred to a LISTSERV mailing list operated by
Texas A & M University, based at a site known as "TAMVM1" - which provides
both mailing list distribution and archiving, and which makes it possible
for users to administer their own participation.  At the present time,
there are three distinct NativeNet mailing lists based at TAMVM1, one known
as "NATIVE-L," which provides a general forum for exchanging information
and perspectives on matters relating to the indigenous peoples of the
world, a second, called "NATCHAT," which exists to provide a forum for
general discussion, and another, called "NAT-1492," which deals specific-
ally with the five hundred year anniversary of the voyage of exploration
of Christopher Columbus to the "New World," and the havoc that ensued for
the native peoples of the Americas.  A list called "NAT-EDU," which deals
with issues regarding the provision of culturally-sensitive educational
programs for Native people and better and more accurate educational
materials concerning Native people for mainstream students has been
established at INDYCMS.  All of these lists are self-administered, in the
sense that subscribers can come and go at will by means of the commands
provided by the LISTSERV software.  (For a full list of current mailing
lists, and instructions on how to subscribe and post to them, please
retrieve "NN-INTRO LISTS" from the TAMVM1 listserv.)

NativeNet has attracted a wide following in the academic community, and
many indigenous people have expressed an interest in using computer
communications technology for the purpose of helping their communities
keep in touch with one another, and for a variety of more specific needs.
Volunteers are always needed to help develop these projects.  (Please
retrieve "NN-INTRO PROJECTS" for a full list of the projects.)


SUBSCRIBING

You can subscribe to any of the mailing lists whose names are listed
below by sending a message to the indicated subscription address (N.B., the
character at the end of the native-l list name is the letter L, and the last
character of the host name tamvm1 is the number ONE).

list name          description                subscription address

native-l    general information exchange    listserv@tamvm1.bitnet
natchat     general discussion              listserv@tamvm1.bitnet
nat-1492    Columbus quincentenary          listserv@tamvm1.bitnet
nat-edu     native education                listserv@indycms.bitnet
nn.lang     native language                 nn-request@gnosys.svle.ma.us

To subscribe to one of the listserv-based lists, send a message to the
indicated subscription address.  Your message should be of the form:

        subscribe <listname> <Your Full Name>

where <Your Full Name> is your full name (not your email address), and
<listname> is one of the list names given above. For example, Mary Doe
could subscribe to the NAT-EDU list by sending the  message:

        subscribe nat-edu Mary Q. Doe

to the address listserv@indycms.bitnet

Some people at Internet sites apparently cannot send to Bitnet hosts using a
.bitnet suffix.  In that case, you can use listserv@iucvm.uic.edu in place
of listserv@indycms.bitnet, and listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu rather than
listserv@tamvm1.bitnet.

Bitnet users can simply use the hostnames TAMVM1 and INDYCMS, and would, if
using the CMS interface, send a message like:

        tell listserv at tamvm1 subscribe nat-1492 John Smith


UNSUBSCRIBING

In order to unsubscribe from one of the NativeNet mailing lists, you
need to send a message to the appropriate listserver.  For the NATIVE-L,
NATCHAT, and NAT-1492 lists, send a message to "TAMVM1.LISTSERV" or "TAMVM1.
TAMU.EDU" saying:

        signoff NATIVE-L
     or
        signoff NATCHAT
     or
        signoff NAT-1492

For NAT-EDU, send the message instead to "INDYCMS.BITNET"

If you just want to turn off mail during a period of absence, so that your
mailbox doesn't overflow, send instead the message:

        set NATIVE-L nomail
     or
        set NATCHAT nomail
     or
        set NAT-1492 nomail

(Later you just say "set NATIVE-l mail," etc. to re-enable mail to the
accounts.)

For the language list or one of the special project lists (nn.database,
nn.brochure, etc.), please send a similar message to "nn-request@gnosys.
svle.ma.us"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NativeNet now operates a series of mailing lists on a variety of subjects
pertaining to various groups of indigenous peoples living throughout the
world.  The main list, known to most subscribers as "NATIVE-L," hosted at
the Bitnet site "TAMVM1," is for the purpose of exchanging information about
indigenous people and their cultures.  It is *not* for discussion.  There is
a separate moderated mailing list called NATCHAT which is just for that
purpose.  The "NAT-1492" list is for subjects relating to the Quincentenary
of the "voyage of discovery" of Christopher Columbus.

For instructions on signing up to these mailing lists, plus a number of
others, as well as on posting articles to these lists, please request the
file "nn-intro lists" from the TAMVM1 LISTSERV filelist for NATIVE-L
(instructions on obtaining this and other explanatory files from TAMVM1
are given below).

Copies of articles posted to the NATIVE-L, NAT-1492, and NAT-EDU mailing
lists are available from archives automatically maintained by the LISTSERV
software.  You can retrieve articles from the archives based on the subject,
sender, and/or date fields of article headers as well as based on the text
content of articles themselves, by means of database-style retrieval commands.
This facility is described in the article which you can get from the LISTSERV
file called "nn-intro archives."  I would encourage you to browse through the
archives to get some sense of the scope of the kinds of subjects we have dis-
cussed and exchanged information about since May of 1991, when the NATIVE-L
LISTSERV was started, and since September, 1991, when NAT-1492 began.  (Prior
to May, 1992, when NATCHAT began operation, discussion was carried in the
NATIVE-L list.)

Following is a list of informational files presently obtainable by means of
sending a message to the address "listserv@tamvm1" from Bitnet sites or to
"listserv@tamvm1.bitnet" or "listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu" from Internet sites.

    nn-intro intro       this file
    nn-intro purpose     NativeNet origins, goals and current directions
    nn-intro lists       mailing lists - signup & posting instructions
    nn-intro archives    getting articles and files from LISTSERV archive
    nn-intro projects    projects now underway and being planned

To get one or more of these files, simply send a message to one of the TAMVM1
listserv addresses given above containing the text:

        get nn-intro <filename> NATIVE-L

For example, to get the archives article, use the message text:

        get nn-intro archives native-l

(Note that the NATIVE-L name need not be in uppercase letters - it's just
the fact that some people mistake the "l" character for the numeral "one"
when it is written in lowercase that has caused me to use NATIVE-L rather
than native-l in most examples.  Note, however, that the Bitnet host at
Texas A & M is TAMVM1 - that IS a one at the end!)

Please let me know if you have any problems with this facility.  If you do
send in a problem report, please send me a copy of the error message you get
in response to your message, to make it easier for me to help you figure out
what the cause of the problem might be.

Again, welcome to the NativeNet electronic community!

Gary

--
    Gary S. Trujillo                            gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts              {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst
Newsgroups: alt.bbs,comp.bbs.misc,comp.misc