1. Wikindigenous: Creating Space For Native American Writing
Wikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous Peoples of
North America: Struggle Within
Charles J. Lippert, Air Quality Technician
Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, DNRE
— · —
The Native American Literature Symposium 2014
Shakopee Mdewáḳaŋṭoŋ Dakota Community
29 March 2014

2. WP:IPNA#History_and_Scope
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America
(Wikipedia shortcut WP:IPNA)
• Created by User:Phaedriel at 20:43, 10 February 2006
• 145 participating editors (some more active editors than others)
• Encompass all historic, ethnic, and cultural aspects of the many
groups collectively described as Indigenous peoples of North America,
including Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Kalaallit of Greenland, Native
Americans in the United States, and indigenous peoples of Mexico
(parts of Mexico within the Mesoamerican culture areas are often
excluded from North America).

3. WP:IPNA#Purpose
• to organize our content,
• to improve our content when possible,
• to detect missing and incomplete articles and
either create them or enhance them, and
• to provide a coordinated effort in this direction.

4. WP:IPNA#Challenges_faced_in_editing
• Contributions in a narrative style
• Inconsistent presentation of a non-English word
• Sudden article nomination for deletion
• POV statements, Weasel-words and Peacock-words
• Presentation of out-dated information as current
• Not easily verifiable information
• Untangling information tangled together in source materials
• Article creation needs exceeding editors’ topical expertise

5. WP:IPNA#Challenges_faced_in_policing
• Vandalism
• Soap-boxing and other POV
• Editor taking exclusive ownership
• Deliberate contribution of misinformation

6. WP:IPNA#Challenges_faced_in_moderating
• Encouraging article edits, but preventing edit wars
• Sharing a clear and unbiased opinion based on topical knowledge
when various article status nominations present themselves
• Different levels of expectations from different Wikipedia projects
• Article content merging and separating

7. WP:IPNA#Editorial_challange_discussions
• Lack of citations
• Lack of current information for citations
• Lack of article content cohesion across Wikipedias
• Abundance of Stub-class and Start-class articles
• Strong editor personalities
• Project bullying from other WikiProjects
• Wikipedia politics

8. WP:IPNA#Improvements
• Encourage community pride through collective ownership of articles
• Encourage academic learning to improve article contents
• Encourage student interest with drill-down levels of information
• Encourage fellow editors in their contributions