Cubbins begins with a few short paragraphs. American Indian peoples live in the real world, and Web sites by and about Indian peoples live on the Web. Just as Indians are sometimes treated fairly in the real world, the Web contains sites that show Indians in respectful ways with accurate information, quality products to sell, and as whole human beings with real lives. Welcoming statements by tribal leaders, links to information about services for tribal members, and claims of the official nature of a site are possible clues, but are not conclusive evidence to identifying a tribe's official site. A good indication is if a server is owned by the tribe, but tribes do not always own the server where their official Web sites are located.
Tribal identification is often very specific.
Language, post-contact history, and culture are similar but not identical for these tribes, and although they identify closely with each other, each is unique. The Anishinaabeg and the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota were traditional enemies. From personal experience, we know there are literally thousands of sites out there with Native content. I've found Cubbins guidelines invaluable in terms of locating ones students and teachers can use as valuable sources for information. There is mold in my library.