High Country News reporter Jolene Yazzie (Diné) photographs Utah Navajo Health System board member Wilfred Jones in San Juan County, Utah.


know how to talk to our people in our com- munities. We know how to fairly represent them,” she says. “We have life experiences that relate to the stories that we are covering. We bring that experience to our roles as journal- ists; that gives the story a different voice. In- digenous media is giving voice to people who have never had much of a voice in the last few hundred years.”


CHALLENGES FROM WITHIN


Underrepresentation of Native stories in mainstream media may be exacerbated by a disempowerment of Indigenous media from within. Despite the need for vigorous Indig- enous news operations, many outlets may not have the resources or freedom to report fully on issues that concern their audiences. When asked to rank the greatest threat to


especially to those in rural areas. Nearly 70 Indigenous radio programs broadcast today. Canada’s APTN launched the first national


Indigenous television program in 1999. First Nations Experience (FNX), the first national Native television network based in the United States, launched in 2011 and went national in 2014. FNX just partnered with Indian Coun- try Today to help distribute its new newscast, the first weekday Native television newscast in the United States. Less than a dozen Native television stations are operating.


FILLING THE GAP


These Native media outlets report the stories of vital interest to Indigenous communities that mainstream media outlets are often un- able or unwilling to cover. Many mainstream media outlets lack the personnel to report in remote locations or they may not understand the cultural, societal and economic realities of Indigenous life. Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, a citizen of the


Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in central North Dakota, founded the Indig- enous Media Freedom Alliance and its blog, Buffalo’s Fire. She advocates for more robust Indigenous news sources because she says mainstream reporting is insufficient. “We’re really not on their radar,” she says. “We had tribal elections about a year or so ago and it was an important election for a new chairman of our tribe. I called the Bismarck Tribune and talked to an editor there and asked if they were going to do any news reporting of our elec- tion, and they said no because they didn’t have a reporter in the area anymore.” 34 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2020


Compton has felt the harm inflicted by


the invisibility of Indigenous stories in main- stream media, even stories worthy of national attention. In 2000, when she first started working


at the APTN television station,


she covered a little-known story about the Canadian military removing sun dancers from their dancing grounds on unceded ter- ritory that had become a farmer’s ranch. “I come from a sun dancing family. I couldn’t believe that the Canadian government sent the military in to remove sun dancers doing their traditional ceremony,” she says. “Why did it take for my people to have their own network for me to hear about that? That goes straight to the heart of why I feel so passion- ately about Indigenous media.” Even well-intentioned mainstream jour-


nalists may lack the context and perspective necessary to tell Indigenous stories with nu- ance and authenticity. Or worse, such media coverage can careen into sensationalism, rein- forcing stereotypes about Indigenous identity. These shortcomings in mainstream reporting are so persistent that NAJA has released a se- ries of reporting guides to help inexperienced or non-Indigenous journalists. “The guides are designed to help non-Indigenous journal- ists navigate areas that they are completely un- informed about,” says NAJA President Tristan Ahtone, “areas that are likely shaded by bias, pop culture and lingering colonial ideas about Indigenous ‘plight.’” On the other hand, Compton says, In-


digenous journalists carry a perspective that enhances and balances coverage: “We are the experts that connect to our people, and we


Indigenous media, more than half of respon- dents to NAJA’s Red Press Initiative survey identified budgetary constraints and lack of financial resources as a top threat. Although many Native publications have gone to digital- only formats to save printing and distribution costs, many Indigenous newspapers are still also available in print to serve their residents who prefer that format or may not have qual- ity internet access. Many of these publications rely on funding from their tribal government because revenue from subscriptions and local advertising is limited. Even the widely recognized national maga-


zine Indian Country Today had to tempo- rarily suspend publication. The former print newspaper published by the Oneida Indian Nation in New York became an online pub- lication called Indian Country Today Media Network in 2011. In 2017, the Oneida Na- tion put the news platform on hiatus and donated its publication assets to the National Congress of American Indians. The NCAI corporation was saved by switching to a new business model: producing a mobile-based publication funded not only by advertising but by donations from the public and foun- dations. It relaunched in June 2018. Editor Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock Tribes) says the intent was to “build a new kind of news organization—one that is sustainable, can inform Indian Country, establish a ca- reer path for Native journalists and educate everyone else.” In 2019, it added a television broadcast and now offers its online and broadcast content to other tribal and public television outlets. To give timely updates on the COVID-19 outbreak in tribal lands, it created a weekday news broadcast that airs on FNX and public television stations. Through


PHOTO BY GRAHAM LEE BREWER (CHEROKEE NATION), HIGH COUNTRY NEWS


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