Native Voice One

Native American Radio Network

Indian Country Today

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Indian Country Today remains in an expansion mode — and the goal is to change the narrative of the Indigenous world (by reporting on stories that would too often go untold.)
This is Trahant Reports. 
The year 2020 began with promise.
Indian Country Today  was in an expansion mode, hiring new reporters, the prospect of our first managing editor, building a business team, hiring a company president, and preparing for a national weekly news broadcast. 
The atmosphere in a newsroom is exciting. Television monitors keeping track of events in real time. Reporters on the phone talking to sources. Ideas being batted around. Energy.
Dalton Walker attended an Investigative Reporters and Editors training session in New Orleans. That’s when everything changed. 
Two days after he returned to the Phoenix newsroom one of the participants tested positive with COVID-19.
A couple of weeks later our newsroom was empty. I have been back a lot lately, and the quietness is still unsettling. Desks are empty. The phones are quiet. Even the television monitors are off. The lights are set to motion detectors — so the rooms are often dark.
But the thing is, we found a new way to work. The news did not stop, nor did our reporters, editors and broadcasters. To put this in perspective: Two years ago Team ICT was at three people. We ended 2019 with nine people. This year we begin with more than 20.
It’s funny. As fast as we have grown, nearly every day, we feel like we need more people. Our ambitions always will exceed our resources, so how do we best report on all of the important news in the Indigenous world?
And our readership remains an amazing story. We reached more than 5.9 million people this past year; nearly 8 million page views. Our demographics have remained consistent. More women than men — 56 to 44 percent — and we continue to be stronger with younger readers, 21 percent are ages 25 to 34. The geography of our readership pretty much spreads across Indian Country, including urban areas. And just seven percent of our readers come from Canada.
Over the year, just less than half of our readers find us through social media, mostly Facebook. About 650,000 people come to ICT directly. This is our version of subscribers, regular readers who check in daily (and some several times a day). 
Our broadcasting team continues to grow as well. Our plan, and budget, was to produce a weekly news show for PBS stations in the fall of 2020. But when the pandemic hit, our daily Zoom calls quickly morphed into a daily newscast. Now we are producing a news show Monday through Friday. 
This week that broadcast will evolve with one of our shows becoming a weekend offering for PBS stations.
This is how we change the story about the Indigenous world, by reporting on everyday events armed with the tools of journalism. 

 

I am Mark Trahant.

Free Press

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Robert Jumper Cherokee One Feather (One Feather picture)

There is an old question about the role of the media in Indian Country? How free should it be? And what’s the best practice?

This is Trahant Reports.

In the 1820s Cherokee Chief John Ross said a press should be as “free as the breeze.” He really didn’t mean that. When he was faced with a Cherokee Phoenix printing stories that he did not like … he supported a change in leadership and appointed a relative as the paper’s editor.

The Cherokee Nation was under incredible pressure to move West. And tribal leaders debated how that difficult conversation should even occur. On top of that the newspapers in Georgia were clearly on the side of removal. And the state of Georgia made it illegal for the Cherokee Nation to hold an election or even to meet. To make sure that the “news” was one-sided the Georgia Guard dumped the lead type from tribe’s newspaper into a deep well.

This was a terrible time. Make no mistake. And a tough moment to support free press.

Then again … one’s point of view about media — pretty much in any democracy — depends on those moments and which side is getting the favorable coverage. (Or not.)

The Eastern Band of Cherokee recently tried to limit coverage of the tribal council sessions to its own newspaper, the Cherokee One Feather. So reporters from non-Indian organizations were forced to cover the proceedings by watching a video feed.

Travis Long is a tribal citizen who works for the Raleigh News and Observer. He told Indian Country Today that he understood the importance of tribal sovereignty, but that a reporter needs to be inside the council chambers instead of watching it on TV. He compared it to being a sportswriter having to cover a game by only watching it on a screen.

Earlier this month the Eastern Band reversed its policy and reopened the meetings to the press.

Robert Jumper, the editor of the tribal newspaper, the Cherokee One Feather, would do more. He called for a new level of transparency, including an improvement in the way the tribe releases public documents. “An informed citizenry is an essential part of representative government,” he said.

This is a new challenge for tribes in the age of data. How do you make sure that information is reliable … and fast.

Tweets and Facebook posts go out instantly, so it’s critical that a government make sure its releases information grounded in facts.

Tribal leaders, like all politicians, bristle when the press is not perfect. Sometimes quotes are not quite right — and perhaps even out of context. But most of the work, the day to day reporting, is a mechanism to let people know what’s going on. And that remains essential.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

Making history on election night … by making news

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It’s already a record year for the number of Native Americans running for elective office in the United States. Now another kind of history, a broadcast first.

This is Trahant Reports.

I have always wondered what it would be like if the “news” had a Native focus? We would hear about candidates who come from Native communities. We’d hear about how policy shapes our world, whether in an urban neighborhood, on a reservation, or in an Alaskan village. The news would be ours.

Well, on election night three national media organizations, FNX | First Nations Experience, Indian Country Today, and Native Voice One, are joining together to broadcast the first ever live national coverage of election night focusing on the 103 Native Americans who are running for Congress, governor, lieutenant governor, as well as state legislatures. There will be reports from Indian Country Today contributors from the candidates’ campaigns across the country.

FNX | First Nations Experience will broadcast Native Election Night Live from its studios in San Bernardino, California, starting` at 6 p.m. Pacific. It will be a five hour, coast to coast broadcast, with on the ground reports from correspondents across the country.

The newscast will be anchored by Antonia Gonzales of National Native News — and yours truly.

This election has already been amazing. There has never been a Native American woman elected to the Congress — and now there are three viable candidates. So the idea is to open the window and let Indian Country Today readers, the viewers of FNX, and the listeners from Native Voice One, get the information about this extraordinary moment in real time. This is history that we don’t want anyone to miss.

“A record number of Native American candidates are on ballots across America this year,” said Micah Wright, Content Manager for FNX.  “As America’s only Native-themed broadcast television network, it’s our responsibility to inform the public about the political advances of all our tribal peoples. It’s especially gratifying that we get to do it in coordination with our fellow Native news organizations.”  Wright is a member of the Muscogee Nation.

Native Voice One is excited to join in broadcasting the live results of election night, in partnership with FNX and Indian Country Today,” said Bob Petersen, Yu’pik Eskimo, network manager for NV1. “Listeners will have the opportunity to hear the Native voice represented on this historic date in American history through the live multi-hour, multi-platform broadcast across the country.”

The five hour program will be broadcast over the FNX network (so check with your local PBS affiliate about its availability.) It will also be carried on the radio by Native Voice One, and streamed on the Indian Country Today website.

Election night is a month away — plenty of time to organize your own watch party.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

When tomorrow comes for Indian Country Today

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Today I have some news about the news.

This is Trahant Reports.

Last fall Indian Country Today went on hiatus.

This is a newspaper with a rich history.

It was started in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, by Tim Giago on July 1, 1981, as The Lakota Times. The newspaper soon became the largest weekly in the state. As Giago wrote: “For the first time in the history of the state an Indian-owned newspaper began to take a close look at the lives of the Native people.” He said as the newspaper grew into a national publication and his staff held a contest, and Avis Little Eagle came up with the name, Indian Country Today.

The paper was sold to the Oneida Nation in 1988 and the publication was moved to New York, eventually landing in New York City. Indian Country Today was a newspaper, a magazine, and a media network.

Last year the Oneida Nation said the changing media landscape meant it could not continue its operations and Indian Country Today went into hiatus. Then the Oneida Nation donated the assets to the National Congress of American Indians.

Now, I have been tasked with rebuilding this news organization.

Here’s the thing: When Indian Country Today was not producing content, writing stories, posting photographs, and such, there remained huge interest from readers. A lot of readers — some 500,000 a month online.

That’s amazing to me. And it’s a solid reason to gear up again. We have much to report.

So on June 4 Indian Country Today will officially unveil a new digital platform and an updated logo. We will do this at the National Congress of American Indians’ Mid-Year Conference and Marketplace in Kansas City, Missouri.

The new Indian Country Today is public media. That means our task is service, so we will be working even closer with other media organizations such as Native Voice One. You should expect more content.

Indian Country Today is ready for its next chapter too, leading in the digital, mobile space.

I remember as a young man mailing tribal newspapers to readers across the country. And, I also waited at the post office for other papers. I’d get a clump of papers, sometimes rolled up as tube, but full of news.

Now the “paper” is digital, multimedia and instant. Our primary focus will be the mobile phone, a platform where our readers are already migrating.

But in the end it’s about the stories we tell. Stories about people doing interesting things. Stories about elections — there is a big one in Idaho this week — and about public policy choices that impact our lives. There are so many stories that will not be told by the national media. No matter. Indian Country can do our own. And we will. Stay tuned.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

Indian Country Today

By

There is a new chapter for Indian Country Today. The newspaper and media network has new owners, but an old task, serving readers of tribal nations.

This is Trahant Reports.

Many years ago Richard LaCourse and I would sit around and toss ideas around what the perfect Indigenous newspaper would look like. LaCourse, at the time, was trying to create a new publication in Washington, DC.

Imagination was his currency. What was possible?

LaCourse had a lot of experience answering that question. He had helped build the American Indian Press Association. He had edited or written for several tribal newspapers, including his own, The Yakama Nation Review. He launched a one-person crusade to raise the standards of Native American journalism.

I even remember the first time I heard him do that. It was on Feb. 24, 1977, at a workshop in Spokane. A speaker was telling tribal editors that they worked for tribal councils and should slant the news accordingly. LaCourse stood up. Angry. Shaking his finger. “Are you aware of the 1968 law that guarantees freedom of the press in Indian Country? Indian newspapers should be professional, straight reporting operations, and your assumptions about cheerleaders for a point of view has nothing do do with the field of journalism. Why are you making this presumption?”

I am thinking of Richard LaCourse as I set out to lead a new chapter for Indian Country Today. The news operation has been on hiatus since September. That cannot be.

Our goal is to build on the legacy of LaCourse—as well as from the first two chapters of Indian Country Today. The publication was founded by Tim Giago in South Dakota in 1991, followed by the ownership of the Oneida Nation of New York.

Indian Country Today is now owned by the National Congress of American Indians—but we will act independently. We are creating a framework to ensure that. But our primary task is the same as LaCourse’s vision: Professional, straight reporting that tells stories about Indigenous people and our nations.

The best way I know how to demonstrate our independence is to produce solid, thoughtful journalism. Every day. So there is a lot of hard work ahead. (And we will need some time to make this so.)

But  Indian Country Today is back in business and we are ready to serve.

I have been teaching journalism for the past seven years and I am always telling students that this is a time of great opportunity. The digital world means that we can reach our audiences instantly. We can communicate ideas. We can explain a complicated process. We can expose wrongdoing. Or write a story about pop culture that makes us smile.

We can even invent a new kind of news organization, one built on the currency of imagination.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

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