A Review of America's Religious Institutions' Utilization of Information Communication Technologies in Shaping Social Policy and Governance

Native Americans and Communication

Scientific research depicts human races as comprised of periods or eras of civilizations: prehistoric, modern, and trans-modern civilizations. Each civilization, in the past as is the current civilization, is governed by rank order bureaucratic hierarchies infused with some type of religious or spiritual belief systems. These religious or spiritual belief systems play a pivotal role in the success of the governance and functioning hierarchy. Americans’ belief systems were composed of what Frankl (2006) calls a search for meaning in their spiritual world for answers to questions that were beyond their immediate comprehension. Native Americans sought answers through visions, through the earth and its natural elements (sky, wind, sun, rocks, rain), which was considered supernatural forces by white settlers who came to America. This search for answers by Native Americans was depicted as “spiritual” and was an integral aspect of Native American culture and communication structure (Griffiths, 1999). The spiritual practices offered Native Americans feelings of satisfaction not only internally but also guidance in how to behave in their daily lives and how to treat others (governance) (Garrett, 1998). Both religion, as practiced by the settlers and spirituality as practiced by Native Americans held significant roles in the governance process during the development of the USA. As immigrants from other countries continued to populate the 13 original colonies, the primordial form of ICTs was primarily human interactions.