When students learn about the history of technology and computing in the United States, the contributions of Indigenous communities are often left out of the conversation. Not only are Indigenous histories skimmed over, but there is also a failure to acknowledge the labor of Indigenous people in the present and future.
Ashley Cordes, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Media in ENVS and Data Science at the University of Oregon, explained that it’s time to diverge from the notion that Indigenous peoples exist solely in the past during the event Building the Indigenous Internet. The DISCO Network* hosted the event on April 14, 2025, and every participant received a copy of Cordes’ book: Indigenous Currencies, Leaving Some for the Rest in the Digital Age. Cordes was joined by Majerle Lister, a Diné** student who researches Indigenous geography, Native American Studies, and Critical Agrarian Studies at the University of Arizona’s School of Geography, Development, and Environment, and Lisa Nakamura, the DISCO Network’s Principal Investigator and Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in American Culture.
Everything begins and ends with land. Before the internet, before the first telephone, and before the telegram, pathways across land and rivers created networked communication systems between people. Innovation didn’t begin in the 20th or 21st century. Cordes said, “To think that infrastructure is an invention of Silicon Valley, for example, would be a gross erasure of the many different materials, peoples, and non-humans that need to come together for anything to be successful.”
One of Cordes’ main goals in her research is to excavate the ancestors in the technologies that we use in the present. For example, cryptocurrency and its polymorphic, or multi-purpose nature, have indigenous roots. An indigenous necklace could be worn to demonstrate values and wealth, but it can also represent contracts between tribes or various other relationships. A wampum belt is composed of different colored beads in patterns that represent histories. Today, cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology, which stores information in a method similar to Indigenous record-keeping technologies.
In addition, the Diné people made contributions to the computing world that many are unaware of. In Lisa Nakamura’s article, “Indigenous Circuits,” she highlights the work of female Navajo workers who produced circuits at a manufacturing plant in Shiprock, New Mexico, on a Navajo reservation from 1965-1975. These circuits were used in devices such as calculators, missile guidance systems, and other early computing devices.
When conducting research with Indigenous communities to learn their complex histories and present ways of life, Lister emphasized the need for care and respect. While it’s necessary to go in with as much knowledge as possible, one must always be prepared to check assumptions. Furthermore, it’s important to deliver the results of research back to the Indigenous communities and present findings to their local governments and communities.
It’s time to open our eyes to the impact that Indigenous peoples have had, currently have, and will have on technology. Indigenous culture doesn’t only exist in the past; Michigan alone is home to over 240,000 Native American or Alaska Native residents, with twelve federally recognized Tribal Nations. It takes many minds coming together over centuries to create what we have today. We must uplift the hidden and silenced voices that innovated and contributed to the computing technologies that we use daily.
*The DISCO (Digital Inquiry, Speculation, Collaboration, and Optimism) Network is a collective of interdisciplinary researchers working to envision a new anti-racist and anti-ableist digital future.
**The Diné, or Navajo, are an Indigenous people of the United States.
