Not everybody is online, yet
by Esther Schindler
A friend of ours, whom we know through the model railroad club, owns an Indian goods store. While anglos can go into there to buy jewelry, books, etc., most of Drumbeat's customers are Indians. Many of them order their craft materials here, or buy religious items (particularly the customers who are in jail, Bob tells us). He stocks 6,000 (count 'em six thousand) CDs of Indian music, one of which we gave vowe and Ute as a gift (I'm not sure they knew what to think of it).
Although the store is fun to explore, the business is largely catalog and mail-based, since whole swaths of the reservations have no telephone service.
Bob told us last night that Drumbeat finally got around to upgrading its web site because, after all, not every customer is on the res. When Bob sent out the new catalog, he included the URL and a short message, something like "Check out our new web site!"
And he got over a hundred requests, by postal mail, asking Drumbeat to send information about the web site.
Comments
Oh, we put it in the CD player. I started to dance, and it rained. Actually it was already raining before the music started. But still, Ute almost fell out of her chair. :-)
I genuinely thought this article was going to be all about curry & beer, funny how terminology varies around the globe.
I watched the Indian's play in the World Series once though, but never heard them play music. ;O)
