While the course, Exploring Digital History was difficult with some of the blogs, it was difficult to follow the blogs with a long and detailed list of instructions. While the digital media were all rather difficult, two digital strategies that I enjoyed using were Audacity and the storymaps. Audacity is a podcast based app that one would be able to use to make podcasts. As an assignment, we had to pick a certain topic to discuss and we had to make a five minute podcast detailing the topic of our choice. As it was more recent, I decided to make a podcast detailing how Native American peoples in general are portrayed in video games. During that week, we discussed three video games that had Native American peoples in them. I mentioned how we discussed how The Oregon Trail had a few different versions and that I played one of them which was from around the early 1980s or possibly the 1990s. I then proceeded to discuss a video game titled When Rivers Were Trails along with another video game titled Never Alone. The Oregon Trail and Never Alone were video games which I had been familiar with prior to the term and Exploring Digital History. In my observations, I talked about how the depictions differed in terms of each video game. With The Oregon Trail, I noted in my podcast how the version I played had Native Americans remaining anonymous but also not exactly villainous in the sense that old westerns would paint Native Americans as. If not as background characters that don’t add much to the story, they would appear every now and then to help hunt for more food. Considering how I was losing food fast on my particular playthrough of The Oregon Trail, I tried to get assistance from Native Americans, but I must’ve pressed the wrong button. When I pressed the spacebar, the next screen showed the family traveling again. Other than that, I had no interactions with Native American peoples in The Oregon Trail.
However, the other video game I played titled When Rivers Were Trails was set during the 1800s in Minnesota. The video game tells the story of an Ojibwe man who is fleeing his home to escape settlers from the US who had arrived in the region. At the beginning of the video game, the title screen had Native American flute music in the background throughout the video game. I discuss how in the video game itself, I hunted for food three times and while the first time I hunted, I caught nothing. I did catch some type of rabbit (presumably an eastern cottontail) and some type of deer (presumably a white-tailed deer). I did attempt to fish as well but failed and I failed to catch some Mallards because the ducks themselves were flying by fast and my arrows kept missing.
As the video game itself progressed, I found myself conversing with both other Ojibwe and settlers to an extent. I should note that during the beginning of the video game’s playthrough, I saw a tab that discussed the folklore of the Ojibwe people. However, when I clicked on the tab, the stories were unavailable. It turned out that I needed to play the video game itself in order to access the stories. One such story was of the wolf (Ma’iingan). This was a story which I expected to see because the Ojibwe view the Gray Wolf as a brother figure and the fates of the two are intertwined with each other. However, I was surprised to find that there wasn’t a wolf clan for the video game itself, however, there was the bear clan. I also talked about the video game Never Alone, which detailed a folkstory of the Inupiat, an Inuit people from Northern Alaska. Like When Rivers Were Trails, Never Alone was not created by some big company but rather a handful of people from the people whose stories that the video game takes from. After a few challenges with uploading the podcast, I was able to upload it into the class website.
Another rather easy digital tool was the storymap which I made after being inspired by When Rivers Were Trails. My storymap was about the Ojibwe’s spiritual bond with the Gray Wolf which I included an Ojibwe styled painting of a Gray Wolf as well. I also expanded on the range of the Ojibwe which showed how big the territory of the Ojibwe is within the US and Canada.
However, it was notably difficult to use Voyant and Flourish to a degree because it was difficult for me to understand the instructions at first. So as a result, I feel as though I could work on that better as well. After going to the Seymour Library for their event known as the “Long night against procrastination”, I was able to get a better understanding of how flourish worked. The next day, I met online with Jennifer and she helped me realize that the passage I had picked was not that beneficial to the blog I was trying to do.
In terms of reflecting on my portfolio, there is a chance what I learned in Exploring Digital History would come to be useful in terms of museum work or academic work. Considering how the Field Museum has a display of Never Alone that is playable, it would be reasonable to assume that children would be curious as to who the video game itself was made by. It would also be eye opening to see how Native American peoples were portrayed in other video games as well.
In conclusion, Exploring Digital History provided great insight into how we use digital media to discuss history. Whether it be apps and websites or even PowerPoints and readings from online, I was able to do much and learn much about not only history, but also geography and how colonialism has impacted Indigenous peoples of North America and Oceania (I,e. Hawaii) into the 21st century. For example, I wasn’t aware that many Native Hawaiians were being pushed out by billionaires who would settle the islands along with tourists who decide to move there. All in all, Exploring Digital History has a lot of potential to discuss topics with future students.
