I’m sure most people in Colorado are unaware of the thousands of indigenous people that have been displaced just so America could expand across the western United States. Unlike in the movies about cowboys and ‘Indians,’ my people did not live in teepees. I come from the Green Reed Place, or as the Spanish named it, Sandia Pueblo.
To most people this holds little to no significance, but as a member of three tribes this holds all the meaning in the world. Leaving my home to come to a place like Colorado left me with questions like: How do people not know more about the history of their own country? Why don’t they care? How can I educate others on my heritage and the problems we have faced and continue to face?
Two things you would never think to connect would be Native Americans and Instagram but that is exactly what I want to do. To start my social media takeover I first looked towards others who have already started to post about Native American Culture. I first looked online to see if I could find any instagram accounts that had already gain traction for their work. Galore Magazine had an article about Native America Women who are doing exactly what I want to do, showcase their culture to the world.
One of the most prominent Native American woman that I looked towards was Representative Deb Haaland. As one of the first pueblo women in Congress she has already caused a stir in what people knew about Native Americans. Her instagram feed is quite short but in the few post she has she has already made clear that her rhetorical situation is one that displays her culture, her hopes for her time in congress, and the progress she has already made in the eyes of young generations of young indigenous women like myself. I hope to follow in her steps in being more personal with my post and display my own experience as a Native American woman.
Another Instagram account that I came across was Indigenous Women Rising. Unlike other accounts that I have followed, this page focuses on the topic of sexual health and reproductive rights. I look to this page in hopes of being influenced in how they use instagram to educate with both pictures and text. As said in the What are Multimodal Projects reading there are many factors that go into how the text is presented both linguistically and visually.
The last page I looked at was that of We Will Not Be Silent. Although this page is not exclusive to Native American issues it does heavily focus on activism. This page has an aesthetic that very much fits into what instagram is. It not only visually holds the consumers eye but the text that is integrated is very short but to the point and hooks the reader. I want to integrate this into my social media project and make sure that the pictures and videos that I post are pleasing to the eye while holding many layers.
Most of these pages play on pathos and how other humans can connect to these pages and their messages on a moral and values based level. I hope that my social media project can also play on human emotions while creating credibility for myself both by using my own experiences and being educated. Most of these pages are made up of pictures and text but I am hoping I can bring a different experience by adding more video and links in my posts to create more content and credibility by adding more sources to the ideas I will try to convey.
I also want to work with writing for web because of the microblogging core of instagram I have to consider how I will write for the web like talked about in the reading for Brian Carroll and how to make my writing short and concise for readers and to how their interest.
Works Cited:
Arola, K., Sheppard, J. & Ball, C. (2014). “Chapter 1: What are Multimodal Projects?” InWriter/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 1-19.
Carroll, B. (2009). Digital Media Versus Analog Media. In Writing for Digital Media. New York, NY: Routledge, 23-54
WRIT 2701: Writing and Digital Media--Winter 2019 
I think this is an incredible idea for an instagram account. It sounds like as far as instagram goes there are not too many pages with this theme. I think this gives you a unique opportunity to display such a great topic in a new format. One thing I think you should keep in mind is who will your audience be? How will you attract readers?
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This is a very powerful profile you are creating that appeals to an issue in our society–ignorance. While not knowing about our own history may be a factor, I believe that many people simply do not care about others’ history and struggles; as long as they are living well, what’s the big deal? As Riley noted above, you should keep in mind who your audience will be. Even though your profile may make Native Americans feel more empowered, it is important to expand your audience to those who lack knowledge of the topic and encourage change. This is definitely a pathos oriented page because of the emotion it provokes, but there should certainly be a strong logical appeal to why this is all important.
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