The Native Blog

'Native Voices' explores the world of media and gaming

'Native Voices' explores the world of media and gaming

"Anthony Pico, former Chairman and Spokesman for the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, spoke in depth about the media's role in painting a negative picture of gaming tribes, in addition to the federal government's excessive involvement in tribal sovereignty and the depletion of funds for health care and social programs for Natives...

''How we are viewed in the eyes of the nation and our ability to deliver our message to the public, the press, elected officials and federal and state policy-makers is of crucial importance to our grandchildren, their grandchildren and future generations of our people,'' Pico said. ''The era of the 'no comment' and no returned phone calls has to end.''

From Indian Country Today: Tell your truth to the media

Tell your truth to the media

Is anyone going into journalism anymore?

Is anyone going into journalism anymore? is an article from the Minneapolis newspaper Star Tribune  and it is about this year's summer interns at the paper. One of the interns:

"Mary Hudetz, 26, grew up at Crow Agency, Mont., which inspired her interest in journalism. "I come from an area where a lot of very important stories remain untold. When the community you care about doesn't have a certain resource then it often forces you to realize how crucial that resource is. In the case of my town, a newspaper is what's missing. I realize that the business is going to see even more adjustments in the next few years, but the need for dedicated reporters and photographers is not going to change." Hudetz, a University of Montana journalism major, interned last summer for the Associated Press in Sioux Falls, S.D. She is writing features this summer."

I hope she wins the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing while at the StarTribune!

Native American journalists...

Native American journalists say bias, dubious statistics hold them back.

"Most Native American Indian journalists say they are seriously underrepresented as a minority group in mainstream newspapers. The American Society of Newsroom Editors estimates the percentage of journalists writing for mainstream newspapers who are Native Americans to be 0.52%, and Native Americans say the actual number is even lower. Reasons for this are complex, but according to some native journalists, two problems they face are bias in the workplace and flawed statistics." 

Jodi Rave: More Natives needed in journalism

Jodi Rave: More Natives needed in journalism

Tim Giago: Writing helped heal wounds of abuse

I read this article on Indianz.com about former Indian Country Today Editor Tim Giago. In this article, he talks about his new book Children Left Behind  and how writing helped heal the wounds of abuse he suffered from the boarding school experience...Giago started out by writing poems to deal with some of his pain and then says...

"By writing about my life, and the lives of my friends at the mission school, it was a cathartic experience for me. By putting my thoughts down on paper I was able to see my life's experiences for what they were, to analyze them, and to put them behind me. Many Indian people who read my book, then and now, write to me and say how much this has helped them to understand their own fears and anxieties. You must understand that America's "Cultural Genocide" against the Indian people encompassed more than three generations beginning in the mid-1880s and lasting until the 1960s."

I think I will order Tim Giago's book today! I know writing has helped me deal with the pain of the past, I wrote a book about my tour of duty in Vietnam and the years I suffered from PTSD and just by writing about it, it helped me a great deal. I wrote my book for myself and now write song-poems to make sense of it all...I found out a long time ago that there is healing through writing.

Correcting History: Telling "our" story

"Correcting History: Telling "our" story by Paula Peters, Indian Country Today.

For nearly 400 years, colonial ideology has dominated the telling of the story of our nation's beginning. While the Pilgrims are cast in hues of courage and righteousness, historians have typically treated the indigenous people as ignorant rebellious savages who resisted missionary efforts to be humanized. The Native people and culture necessarily sacrificed for the good of the advancement of manifest destiny.

It is an easy leap ... right over the truth."

Read More

Native Journalists on C-Span

A week or so ago. The Native American Journalism Association held their annual conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma Native Journalists meet in Tulsa for Conference and I caught some of that conference on C-Span today when I was surfing the TV channels!

One Native Journalist on the panel told the audience "I will give anyone here ten dollars if they can tell me if their tribal website has been updated  in the past month" and only two people in the audience raised their hands. If I was there at that conference, I sure wouldn't have collected on that ten dollars. I can go to my tribal website and there is never any updated information to read!

Maybe, my tribe can pay someone from the tribal website crew, to go to the 23rd Native American Journalism Association next year and maybe there they can learn how to update the tribal website more than once a year!