About Virtual Native Lands
Virtual Native Lands was conceived as a response to the lack of authentic Native American presence and content in virtual worlds. Although there are dozens of virtual worlds in existence with more being introduced every year, very few Native Americans are yet present in any of them.
A high level of public interest in Native American cultures worldwide combined with limited authentic Native American presence results in misrepresentation of Native cultures and issues in the emerging 3D internet.
Furthermore, Native Americans have not yet begun to make use of the capabilities virtual worlds offer which are uniquely suited to the needs of widely dispersed and fragmented tribal communities.
The Virtual Native Lands project began to take shape in June, 2008, as an entry in the USC Annenberg School for Communication Network Culture Project, Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge.
USC Network Culture Project
Virtual Native Lands, then called Native Lands, was one of three projects selected for a three month long study of a beneficial use of virtual worlds. Virtual Native Lands was incorporated as an educational nonprofit business in Washington State in September, 2008.
Virtual locations for educational exhibits, training in the use of virtual worlds technology, and collaboration with an increasing number of educational institutions and nonprofit agencies have since grown to include three islands of interactive content representing Native North America from Alaska to Mexico in Second Life. More and richer content is constantly being incorporated into these exhibits as the Virtual Native Lands team gains new members and the capabilities of virtual worlds platforms increase. Most recently, Virtual Native Lands established an initital presence on the Open Simulator virtual world platform to further expand our understanding of the possibilites virtual worlds offer.
Virtual Native Lands is serving as a contact point in virtual worlds for those seeking authentic information about Native America and connection with real world Native American organizations. Virtual Native Lands also serves as a contact point for Native Americans seeking connection with virtual worlds organizations and information.
The majority of Virtual Native Lands activities take place in the Second Life virtual world. Second Life is the largest and most active virtual environment on the internet.
Second Life
Virtual Native Lands is currently expanding onto other virtual worlds platforms as well, such as Open Sim
Open Sim
Our mission is to explore and make more accessible to Native Americans all phases of virtual worlds technology.
About the Virtual Native Lands Logo
The Virtual Native Lands logo depicts seven arrows emerging in a spiral dance to remind us of the promise to the seventh generation made by our sixty four great-great-great-great-grandparents, and to remind us of the promises we are making today.