Cuillier, D., & Ross, S. D. (2007). Gambling with identity: Self-representation of American Indians of official tribal websites. The Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 18, p.197-219.

          David Cuillier is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, Tucson. In addition to this, he is the chairman of the national freedom of information committee for the "Society of professional Journalists", where he maintains a blog concerning issues on freedom of information (www.spj.org/FOI.ASP).

Cuillier has earned his B.A. in journalism from Western Washington University, and received his M.A.  as well as his Ph.D. in communication from Washington State University. In May 2006, the scholar finished his dissertation in communication on public attitudes toward freedom of information (journalism.arizona.edu/people/faculty/cuillier.php)

          Similarly, Susan Dente Ross is an assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, where she is involved in directing the undergraduate program in Media and Law. Furthermore, Ross' area of expertise is the media's portrayals of minorities, in which she already published a great amount of studies (www.amazon.com/s; www.greenwood.com/catalog/author/R/Susan_Dente_Ross.aspx

          The two scholars began to collaborate in order to examine how American Indians construct their identity on tribal websites. The study was particularly interested in how non-Indians tourists may interpret tribal webpages from casino and non-casino tribes and how Indians presented themselves online. After conducting a frame analysis on 224 official American Indian websites, the scholars came to the following conclusions:

          One-third of the casino-tribes represented their own identities within a historic relic frame. That is, they depicted themselves as the "exotic Other" to intentionally represent their identity as the White man's Indian. In fact, these tribal websites were often dominated by feathers, stoic Indian braves in traditional headdresses, and other stereotypical images of the noble and ignoble savage. Ross and Cuillier suggest that this reinforcing of negative stereotypes may be a marketing strategy to attract non-Indian tourists to their casinos in order to maximize profits.

          Non-casino tribes, on the other hand, were much less likely to reflect the White man's Indian identiy. They rather utilized a  voiced participant frame, which stresses the tribes' claim for sovereignty and resistance and depicts images of a modern American Indian-lifestyle.

          As a result of this, the internet does not necessarily benefit American Indian minority groups. Instead of providing them a forum to express resistance and create change, this study suggests that the internet became a new tool of oppression by reinforcing cultural stereotypes. By placing tribal culture within the historic-relic frame, homepages legitimize, once more, an ideology of exclusion, racism, and difference. Thus, if American Indians want to achieve greater social equality and diminish long held assumptions of "the Exotic Other", the authors argue that the White man's Indian- ideology must disappear from tribal websites.

          Unfortunately, this study does not examine those who created the websites, as they may give significant insight into their motivations of creating the pages within those narrow frameworks. Nevertheless, Cuillier and Ross successfully put American Indian's struggle for identity on the reserach agenda. They certainly understood to merge contemporary technological research with cultural, ethnic studies, which makes this study all more significant and relevant. Thus, they created a great foundation for further resesach to be conducted and to possibly create change on behalf of the American Indian minority.