Shortly after a researcher arrived at a Traditional Mohawk (Iroquois) Indian community in New York State in May 1997, seven community members began using the Netscape 3.0 e-mail system with steadily increasing frequency. The researcher was interested in studying the relationship between new communication technology and identity maintenance. E-mail users soon reported a very real and perceivable tension concerning the way they wanted things to "come out,""sound," or "feel." The initial discussion concerns several features of the e-mail system being employed (including the subject field, a prompt associated with the subject field, and the linear, sequential nature of the medium). On the face of it, users' complaints were concerned with the formal way in which text appears on a computer screen. But in addition to the linear array of information manifested on a screen, this notion also refers to the way in which certain software is described as constraining to users' thought processes, and ultimately, their personal communication when using that software. This paper unravels some of the details surrounding the relationship between "Mohawk" and "machine," and aims to track the changes in analytical frame prompted by the complex nature of that relationship. (Contains 3 figures and 25 references.) (Author/NKA)