Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ronald Barnes (Alaskan politician)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Stifle (talk) 11:49, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ronald Barnes (Alaskan politician)[edit]

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The Wikipedia page for Ronald Barnes should be deleted. It reads like a resumé or C.V. for a person who is a member of a small NGO. He has no newspaper articles tied to his name, and appears to be non-notable. Anywho2015 (talk) 16:45, 8 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - only source is an external link for a conference he attended, unable to locate any third-party, reliable sources that would confirm his notability.Fyddlestix (talk) 13:53, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Alaska-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 14:18, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 14:18, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. I came to this expecting this would be a member of the state senate or something, but he doesn't actually appear to be a politician at all in the normally understood sense of the word. He may need policitial skills to be the "diplomatic representative" of a small NGO but that's not the same thing. Attending a notable event event as a representative of an obscure organization does not confer notability on the attendee. Overall looks like a case of WP:VSCA. An article on the organization he represents would be a better place to start, if there are any sources to construct that from. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:42, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete – I was LMFAO when I came across this article several years ago because of the pretentiousness of its wording, then promptly forgot about it. Thanks for nominating it, though it should be pointed out that this was nominated by a brand new editor whose only contributions to Wikipedia were made in a 12-minute stretch several days ago, focused solely on having this article deleted. That editor's post to the article's talk page says that Barnes is part of an "Alaskan indepedance (sic) movement NGO". My firsthand familiarity with that movement dates to the late 1970s; I can assure you that he's not a part of it. Doing a Google search, however, indicates that the tribal council in Tununak (through Barnes) is attempting an approach similar to what Joe Vogler did during the last years of his life, namely petitioning the UN. He's certainly not involved with the politics of Alaska, which is an impression one would develop by looking at the article's title and its inclusion in Category:Alaska politicians (Category:Alaska Native activists would have been a more appropriate category). I left a note at WT:IPNA linking to this discussion, as the aforementioned Google search gave a faint indication that Barnes may possibly have some name recognition in indigenous circles. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 21:12, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Keep but Rename (perhaps as Ronald Barnes (Alaska Native activist) ?) and definitely needs a serious rewrite! (And it won't be me who does said rewrite). Per the inquiry of RadioKAOS, (I'm a member of WP IPNA) I'd say that there is adequate indicia of notability (or notoriety) given that it is difficult to find RS on Indigenous people, and Alaska native people in particular. I googled https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Ronald+Barnes+Alaska and of the hits that aren't WP mirrors. In particular, yes, the "appeal to the UN is kind of fringe, but it is reported officially at:

"INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND NATIONS COALITIONShadow Report for the United States of America CERD Implementation Report"

Delete - Shouldn't there be some RS for this guy if he's notable? Otherwise anyone attending a UN HR conference could have a bio. Slygrog (talk) 22:51, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete, pending justification from indigenous community to validate his notability, which isn't evident online.

I found this in the Federal Register: Native Village of Tununak, Theodore Angaiak, President, P.O. Box 77, Tununak, AK 99681-0077; Phone: (907) 652-6527; Fax: (907) 652-6011. Someone could call and find-out if this guy Barnes is legitimate or not.

In any event, the town of Tununak has 325 residents, so being elected as a foreign affairs representative (as Barnes claims) by the "Elders of Tunanak" is kind of small-glory. DroitInternationale (talk) 13:30, 14 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments:

Never forget the issues of systemic bias when dealing with indigenous people, who are often "invisible" to mainstream sourcing methods.
Also don't discount a small community - if those 325 are the only living members of a given ethnic group, then that is VERY significant.
A better Google search ("Ronald Barnes Alaska") is here. Once you toss out the wikipedia mirrors and references to other people with a similar name there, we still have something. A sampling of third-party sites include the following:

International Diplomat interview
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: yearbook
Expert paper
web site with entry on Barnes

For the above reasons, I think it best to err on the side of caution and keep. Montanabw ^(talk) 19:50, 14 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Weak keep There are sources (albeit minor) available: Unrepresented Peoples Org, Amherst Media (Community TV), International Diplomat, Univ. Dayton School of Law. Also, I favor changing the page name as suggested above - Alaska Native Activist - or something similar. LaMona (talk) 00:09, 15 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Missvain (talk) 05:58, 15 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Re-stated Delete I'm glad someone mentioned petitioning the UN - which is in no manner 'fringe': Michael Brown's family and friends came to the UN in Geneva last year to raise the political aspect of his murder. As per the article: I have contact with the subject matter in question, including, but not limited to, that petitioning-forum. Before I'm comfortable with this article being kept, I want someone here to justify that this guy is actually representing at least one body of the indigenous peoples from Alaska. Personally, I'm not convinced he's not a fraud. He's at the UN. He's going to UN meetings. He's making plenty of contacts in that context, which someone might contend is grounds for notability (and if that's so, you've got a long-list of unwritten BLPs for representatives of indigenous groups worldwide who also petition the UN). To be frank, I'm not clear Barnes is attending meetings at the UN on behalf of whom he claims sent him - as it stands, he gets invited under the auspices of other groups than his own, which isn't abnormal, but other elements of the situation are. I think that this article may be part of fabricating the appearance of the linkage (of representing an indigenous community). And if that's true, the title shouldn't be 'Native activist' but something-else. Can someone contact the group in the "Native Village of Tununak" (contact details listed above) to check Barnes-out? DroitInternationale (talk) 06:55, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.