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Nez Perce traditions in a journalist’s job
To keep the culture preserved, such speakers had to be observant, accurate, objective, and bear excellent communication skills. Sound like a familiar job today? I often reflect on my work as a journalist, and wonder if I’ve some inherent genetic code that comes from this time-honored practice. And while print, television and the Internet have given us more venues to learn of events and culture, I’m still drawn to the spoken word. I like to hear a voice, conversational and assuring, as it provides me news of the day’s events or a profile of a compelling person. I sometimes even wish the walls of my house or car could vanish, and be replaced with a makeshift lodge of deer hide or tule grass, a fire burning in the center like the days of old. But then a car horn blares somewhere behind me, or the phone rings. The modern world’s intrusion reminds me of my place and time. I return to my computer and begin to think how best to share the next story for my audience. -- Brian Bull, Wisconsin Public Radio Posted on 03.17.05 at 11:09 AM by Victor Merina The ugly truth about frybread
I have had such a rude awakening about frybread. I said earlier that I associate it with tribal meals because it was so prevalent at Swinomish events. The first time I had it was at the Earth Day celebration in 2003. I wasn’t even there as a reporter. (I so rarely eat when reporting anyway, because it’s hard to eat and write—or talk). A reporter from an area weekly asked if I’d ever had it and told me it was good. I was surprised to see so many people pile more than one piece of the fattening carb on their plates. It was basically a donut that wasn’t sweet and yes, it was very good. But since the first day of the seminar, when I so joyfully ate the frybread at the National Museum of the American Indian, not a day has gone by that someone hasn’t brought it up. And not in a good way. What I’ve learned is that frybread is not part of the traditional diet, but rather a byproduct of colonizing Indians and giving them nothing but flour and lard. One of our speakers, Suzanne Shown Harjo, wrote about getting rid of frybread in this article, and it caused such a stir, several other speakers have brought it up, not realizing we’d met Harjo. Harjo was even a speaker on a Native America Calling radio show about frybread.
“Frybread has killed more of my people than the U.S. government,” radio host Patty Talahongva said.
Everyone curious about frybread had their chance to eat it Friday at the Diné Café Quality Inn Navajo Nation Capital (its full name). Our lunch options were mutton stew, beef stew, Navajo sandwich, Navajo taco, Navajo burger and Navajo vegetarian burrito. “Navajo” meant on frybread. --Kari Neumeyer, The Olympian (Olympia, WA) Posted on 03.13.05 at 11:01 PM by Kari Neumeyer, The Olympian (Olympia, WA) Fearless Indian paper takes on native government
Like many American Indian communities, the Navajo Nation in Arizona does not have an open records law. That makes it harder for the public and journalists, “especially non-tribal members“ to get information about the inner workings of tribal government. The Navajo Times, with 21,500 paid subscribers, is the country’s largest Indian-owned paid circulation newspaper. Nearly all of its 40 staff members are Native Americans. Yet even they have a hard time getting tribal records sometimes. “Generally you have to work to get the documents,” Editor Duane Beyal told participants in the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism’s seminar on covering Indian Country. “Even getting police reports is a tough job. Now we’re getting them.” Over the years, however, the weekly publication has persevered over many more serious challenges than closed record books. In the late 1980s, when the paper was still owned by the Navajo government, staff uncovered a shady land deal involving a former Navajo president. The revelations tore the reservation apart, leading to a riot in which two people were killed. Critics harassed the paper’s staff. They hung the employees in effigy, made bomb threats, vandalized their cars and killed one reporter’s dog. “We never backed off from covering the issues that were important to us,” Publisher Tom Arviso said. In February 1987, tribal government closed the paper and reopened it two months later staffed by people handpicked by the tribal chairman. Eventually Arviso and his staff were vindicated when the former president went to prison. Passions cooled when a new administration took over. In October 2003, the tribal council voted 66-1 to sell the paper to Arviso and make it independent. “It all comes down to a freedom of the press issue,” Arviso said. “The only way we would be able to get past the censorship was to break away from the Navajo government. -- Faith Bremner, Gannett News Service Posted on 03.12.05 at 4:00 AM by Victor Merina How to make people care about Indian stories? Find the compelling peopleWhat story are you working on? As a journalist, I get asked this question often. And when I mention that it’s a story about Indians, the response is usually: ‘’Oh.’’ Some are intrigued, but the topic usually doesn’t spark a lot of dialogue. Why is that?
But Thursday and Friday, we met members of the Navajo Nation and Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. On the Navajo reservation, 43 percent of the population falls below the poverty level and the unemployment rate is too high. Homes are overcrowded and lack plumbing and electricity. Jennifer Watchman lived with her Navajo husband and her two children in a tiny trailer for years, never able to save enough money to buy a home. The Navajo Partnership for Housing helped them repair their credit, taught them about home buying and today they live in a three-bedroom home. But her husband has struggled with alcohol and abused his wife; he is in a rehabilitation center. This, said Richard Kontz, executive director of the partnership, is a family trying to break the cycle of poverty and abuse.
So how do we make people care about stories like this?
Too many times our stories are so full of comments from officials and experts that we forget the real story _ the people. It’s up to us to find them, no matter the topic, and tell the larger story through them. And next time someone asks me what story I’m working on and I tell them it’s about Indians, I hope they’ll say ‘’Wow. What a great story.’’
-- Angie Wagner, The Associated Press
Posted on 03.12.05 at 3:58 AM by Angie Wagner, The Associated Press Claiborne’s tips on covering Indian CountryWhen Dennis McAuliffe Jr., a Native American journalist and director of http://www.reznetnews.org at the University of Montana, offered some basic reminders, to journalists who deal with Native American sources, he turned to the words of a former colleague. McAuliffe said William Claiborne, a former reporter for The Washington Post, had these suggestions:
--Be absolutely straight with Indian sources.
Claiborne’s full list can be found here.ClaiborneTips.doc One of our fellows, Brian Bull, assistant news director at Wisconsin Public Radio, encouraged colleagues to meet with sources to break down what can be an inherent mistrust of media and to review appropriate and inappropriate behavior on the reservation (such as checking when, where and if cameras can be used). --John Stearns, The Arizona Republic Posted on 03.12.05 at 3:01 AM by Victor Merina A tribe by any other nameThis is just a quick observation from Tuesday’s presentation by Suzan Shown Harjo, a columnist for Indian Country Today. Her final word of advice – not to refer to an Indian “nation” as a “tribe”—clearly demonstrated the need for better communication between the tribes and the media by raising what I consider a minor distinction born of understandable sensitivities that have developed during the media’s strained relationship with Indian country. Although Harjo said the distinction marked a sign of respect, I see no harm in referring to an Indian nation—on second reference, of course—as a “tribe,” a widely accepted term (which to my knowledge has no derogatory meaning) used to describe the country’s 560-plus federally recognized tribes. Of course, specific first references – as in all cases – should use a tribe’s formal name. That said, I have begun several stories, “Maine’s two largest Indian tribes …,” and have never received negative feedback from the Penobscot Indian Nation, one of four Maine tribes I cover. Nor have I been challenged when referring to the Aroostook Band of Micmac as a “tribe” rather than a “band.” But Harjo’s advice, although I question its premise, will make me ask tribal leaders for their perspective when we next meet. This is not to say I will change what I believe to be the sound journalistic practice of using general terms on second reference. I will, however, explain it. Regrettably, such explanations have not always been so readily offered to Indian country. -- Jeff Tuttle, Bangor (Maine) Daily News Posted on 03.11.05 at 4:11 AM by Victor Merina …And a quick explanation of Maine’s tribal representationThis is just a quick explanation of Maine’s tribal representation system, in case there was any confusion – or interest – arising from Thursday’s morning session about Indian education. Maine is the only state to allow tribes – in this case its two largest tribes – to send representatives to the state legislature. While tribal members have won legislative seats in other states, Maine is the only state to guarantee them a seat by allowing those tribes (whose reservations also lie within legislative districts) to choose what amounts to an extra representative to the State House. Because of issues of proportional representation, those two Indian delegates cannot vote on the House floor. However, they can vote in committee and sponsor legislation. Back to the subject of education, it was a tribal representative who submitted the bill to require the teaching of Indian (specifically Wabanaki) culture and history in all grades K-12. The law took effect in September 2004. However, it might be worth noting that Maine was the last state to allow Indians to vote in state elections. -- Jeff Tuttle, Bangor (Maine) Daily News Posted on 03.11.05 at 4:00 AM by Victor Merina Storytelling through Images, Words
Marmon, who was born on the Laguna reservation in 1925, chronicles the last generation of the Laguna and Acoma tribes living by their traditional ways and values in his book “The Pueblo Imagination.”
The book, published in 2003 by Beacon Press in Boston, features tribal photographs and landscape images with native poetry by Joy Harjo and Simon Ortiz and poetry and prose by Leslie Marmon Silko, the photographer’s daughter. The power of words is enhanced by the images, in both color and black-and-white. The images also stand on their own.
“Storytelling can be told in photographs,” said Marmon who still lives in the Laguna Pueblo.
Posted on 03.10.05 at 4:01 AM by Victor Merina A columnist looks at ‘crash course’ on IndiansColumnist Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education has been listening, taking notes and observing a traveling seminar that he says one Native American leader calls a “crash course on Indian issues.” What can be learned in a week’s worth of seminars and journey into Indian Country? Plenty, he says, in his column on the Maynard Insitute Web site. Posted on 03.10.05 at 3:50 AM by Victor Merina To blog or not to blog?Three days into our cross-country trip and the group is split. Not along lines of native v. nonnative or print v. radio/TV, but blog v. nonblog. Some of the journalists here have this idea that we should maintain standards that don’t lend themselves to blogs. There’s also the argument that blogs go against journalistic training of maintaining objectivity. One reporter pointed out that a flippant blog remark could come back and bite you in the rear. I’ll share two thoughts on the topic. One is that a journalist can reach expert status when she spends years covering a subject. At this point, objectivity is an ideal, but not a reality. I’m human and I won’t pretend not to form opinions. I’ll stand behind them and am not afraid to share them. Second, blogs can be fun. Our tour guide at the National Museum of the American Indian, Phillip Hillaire, a Lummi, at one point said, “Humor is a really important part of our culture. We’ve had it for a long time.” This seminar so far has been interesting and packed with facts, with a certain stress on the importance and urgency of some of the issues in Indian Country. The blog is a way of highlighting the lighter side of things. Don’t all cultures like to laugh and appreciate a look at the lighter side of things? Look at what many people turn to first in the newspaper: the comics. --Jill Ingram, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times Posted on 03.10.05 at 2:57 AM by Victor Merina McCain seeks closure to trust issue, cites other needsWASHINGTON—The chairman of the Senate committee on Indian Affairs said this week that the government’s mishandling of the Indian trust accounts “reads like a bad novel,” an issue that has the potential of costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. In a one-hour Capitol Hill session on Monday with a group of 20 reporters on a traveling seminar of Indian country, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., discussed a wide range of issues facing Native Americans and said he wants to help bring closure to the trust matter that has cast a shadow over everything in Indian affairs. McCain laid out his road map for resolution of trust issues, saying there has to be a settlement that’s viewed as fair by all parties, and the amount cannot be “too high.” McCain did not give an exact figure, saying the process hasn’t gotten far enough to determine an amount. Some community leaders describe the lawsuit that has thrust the trust matter into the spotlight—Cobell v. Norton—as one of the top three issues facing Native America. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that a lot of Indian accounts that were revenues from mineral, oil and other leasing were badly mismanaged by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) which was supposed to take care of these revenues as trustees for both individuals and tribes,” he said. Accounts—many of which cannot be found—date back more than 100 years. “The fix has to be that everyone is confident that we will not revisit this issue and we made the correct remedies to this deplorable and despicable situation,” McCain said. A member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, Elouise Cobell is the lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Norton, which has challenged the government’s mishandling of individual Indian trust lands and accounts. The complex class-action lawsuit was filed in 1996 by Cobell, a banker, on behalf of nearly a half-million Indians who contend that during more than a century, the government has cheated them of about $137 billion in royalties from the leases. The government pays beneficiaries a total of more than $500 million each year from the fund, which exceeds $3 billion dollars, according to the New York Times. “It’s been an incredible and bizarre story,” McCain said, adding that Native Americans have suffered because of a lack of full accounting for an orderly management of funds.
But McCain said a full accounting could cost billions of dollars and “frankly the Congress of the United States will never appropriate
“I am going to try one more time to see if we can’t get some kind of overall settlement because if we don’t get a settlement, it could be decades before we have a final resolution of this issue and it would have to go to the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said. When asked why the government was non-responsive and how the case could have mushroomed from Cobell to encompass so many plaintiffs with billions of dollars at stake, McCain said that the Department of Interior, in hindsight, did not give the trust issue the attention it deserved initially. Anecdotally, the senator continued, he’s been told that the case had some lower level attorneys assigned to it early on. “I don’t think anybody envisioned that we’d have secretaries of the interior held in contempt of court and a secretary of the treasury, the (BIA website) shut down,” he said. On another front, McCain said many people view flourishing Indian casino tribes as representative of all of Native America. “One of the problems that we have is ... a lot of people (in the Northeastern part of the United States) say, ‘Gee, here are all these rich Mohicans, and here are all these rich Pequots, they’ve got billions, the largest single casino in the world is the Foxwoods Casino.’ So, we have to fight the impression on the part of many that all Native Americans now are rich,” McCain said. “In reality, that’s simply not the case.” Of the 562 federally recognized tribes, 224 have gaming operations, he said, but some of the largest tribes do not have gambling. Indian gambling has exploded from a $200 million industry in 1988 to $18 billion today, he said. In calling for more transparency in casino operations, McCain asserted. That wherever huge sums of money is exchanged, there’s a risk of corruption. One of things he said he wants to do is examine closely the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. A commission of some 40 members oversees Indian gaming, while a roughly 500-member commission oversees the gambling enterprises in Nevada, McCain said. Gaming “has expanded beyond our wildest imagination,” McCain said. More than 200 entities are seeking tribal recognition from the federal government, a number he said has grown since the passage of the Indian gaming act. “Strangely enough prior to the influx of Indian gaming activity, there was very little of that kind of activity,” he said, a statement that was refuted later in the day by a BIA representative who also spoke with reporters who are part of the cross-country traveling seminar with the University of Southern California’s Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. Lee Flemming, the director of the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, said there had been no demonstrable increase in tribes seeking federal recognition in recent years. The complex recognition process can take more than a decade. McCain said sufficient oversight and regulations are a must to prevent any scandals in Indian gambling, but added that he is not putting the industry on notice.
“I am saying that we will continue to exercise our oversight responsibilities under the legislation that we passed in 1988,” he
Speaking to education levels and poverty problems on Indian reservations, McCain said, there’s no magic fix because the tribes are so different. Studies have shown that self-governance has been very effective for Indian tribes, McCain said, with those that exercise it showing educational improvements and a decline in poverty. For Indian country economies to flourish, McCain suggested that tribes need to be more accommodating of business. “In many ways today, tribal governments are socialist in nature and they micromanage the reservation and they serve as an impediment to economic development, unintentionally,” he said. --Vik Jolly, The Orange County Register Posted on 03.10.05 at 2:45 AM by Victor Merina Hip Hop, Sacred Sites, Drydocks and Other Untold Stories from Indian Country
Breaking away from the standards is tough, particularly if the reporter is sympathetic towards sharing these hardships with the public. However, the audience is often left with the notion that these issues are ones that solely define contemporary Indian existence, which is not the case. Today I got to sit among very esteemed company: Denny McAuliffe, Suzanne Shown Harjo and Bill McAllister, who all made the case for untold stories they’d like to share. Among those listed were the preservation of Indian sacred sites, the prominence of hip-hop among Native youth, an ill-fated dry dock venture for an impoverished Alaskan tribe, and the “fractionated heirship” which involves the Cobell trust case. All of these stories, besides being enterprise, are complex and deserving of further attention. Yet these can often be the hardest to sell, both to an audience and editorial manager. I find that even if an assignments editor or news director is enthusiastic about Indian stories, they can still fall prey to the standard “doom and gloom” expectations of tribal communities, and this demands a re-education of sorts; that while it’s important to highlight the tragedies and shortcomings of Indian life, there’s also room for celebration and optimism. I’ve filed stories for National Public Radio that have carried both aspects, because I’m fortunate to work with a bureau chief whose expectations are wide-open. But if that’s one hurdle passed, then another one presents itself: accessing tribal communities that can bring those untold stories to light. I count myself lucky in that being part Indian (Nez Perce), my general appearance and familiarity with tribal communities have gotten me further into “the Rez” than my non-Indian colleagues often have. But even I hit a firewall now and then, particularly when approaching stories packed with spiritual or ceremonial observance. My suggestion for any reporter wanting to cover “Indian Country” is this: be proactive. Don’t wait for a story to erupt, then try to schmooze and woo the tribal community. Make a few cold calls, drop in and visit, hand out business cards but leave the camera, tape recorder, or notepad in the car. Visit everyone, whether it’s a tribal chairperson or a teen skateboarding down the sidewalk. Ask what’s news, how things are going, if there’s any new projects happening - without passing judgment or trying to nail down an immediate source. Get a feel for the local politics, and immediate relations outside the reservation borders. Often they can be strained. Take note of new buildings, ones in disrepair, which people are in charge, and why. Come again, and repeat. If and when a story breaks, ask what is appropriate when it comes to recording sound or video. If you’re asked to shut off a recording device, do it. Don’t secretly record the event either, no matter how intriguing it is. One burnt bridge can take ages to rebuild, and you may well endanger the relationship between the tribe and other journalists as well. Observe and respect the cultural mores of an Indian community, and you may well find yourself being privy to more breaking news and enterprise opportunities than the average reporter. And while Native American stories can be very time-consuming and complex, your reward will be in covering a much under-reported people, and exposing your audience to their accomplishments and prospects as well as their hardships. --Brian Bull, Wisconsin Public Radio Posted on 03.09.05 at 1:50 AM by Victor Merina Complexity and ChaosTrying to understand the relationship between the United States government and American Indian tribes is simply mind numbing. I’ve never covered international affairs, but I’m left pondering how tribal/federal relations compare in complexity to the U-S relationship with other sovereign nations.
The examples of complexity and chaos seem endless. Perhaps the most prominent is the trust issue. Just when the historical or contemporary process of trust responsibility begins to make sense, there’s another caveat or disclaimer which sets off cognitive dissonance. It seems the same with issue after issue. It appears decades of congressional tinkering and agency rulemaking have built a system that is amazing in it’s sheer complexity.
Can I succinctly and accurately explain to listeners issues that I’m
--Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio Posted on 03.09.05 at 1:47 AM by Victor Merina McCain Weighs in on Indian Gambling, Trust Mess
While Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., denied Monday that he was putting Indian gambling on notice, it certainly appeared that way in a meeting with reporters participating in a fellowship through the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. The chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee suggested that Indian gambling is ripe for scandal and also weighed in on the contentious trust reform issue embodied in the Cobell vs. Norton case. Following are a few comments from McCain on each issue.
On Indian gambling:
“Wherever money is the item that’s exchanged, there’s going to be the risk of corruption,” McCain said. He cited Nevada’s early battles with corruption and subsequent strong regulation and referred to the state as the experts in requiring “transparency” in keeping the industry clean. McCain cited the need for “transparency, transparency, transparency” in Indian gambling. Asked how that squares with tribal sovereignty, McCain responded that “this is always the rub” determining where tribal sovereignty ends and federal sovereignty begins. While some gambling experts consider McCain’s home state a model for Indian gambling regulation, he said regulation varies among states and suggested the issue needs clarification. Hearings to determine things like tribal land acquisition for gambling are following IGRA guidelines and to identify the nature and size of Indian gambling problems are important, he said.
“We will continue to exercise oversight responsibilities,” he said.
“We have to fight the impression on the part of many that all Native Americans are rich,” he said, reiterating his call to ensure the industry is run as well as possible to avoid any corruption that could, in his terms, kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
On Cobell vs. Norton:
Claims for more than $100 billion for full accounting of alleged trust mismanagement could never be paid, he said. “The Congress of the United States will never appropriate that kind of money,” McCain said calling for a settlement that would be viewed as bringing “closure” and seen as fair to all parties. Asked how much he thinks could settle the issue, he said it “can’t be too high,” but added that he doesn’t know the amount. There must be a fix, though, to what McCain called a “deplorable and despicable situation” on the trust issue. While McCain said the Bureau of Indian Affairs has had many failings, he said he’d rather fix BIA than abolish it. If it weren’t around, who would administer Native American programs? he asked. -- John Stearns, Arizona Republic Posted on 03.09.05 at 1:41 AM by Victor Merina Understanding Cultures, Hearing Their StoriesThe National Museum of the American Indian, which opened last September, spent more than five years working with community members to ensure that the exhibits were told from their point of view. For too long, others had determined what was their history and this was their chance to tell their story. In the “Our Universe” exhibits, staff checked in with selected communities throughout the process, visiting them in their homelands, and flying them to the museum. It was up to each group to decide what items would be displayed. But does respecting these perspectives sometimes lead to meaning lost on museum visitors? For example, in the “Our Universe” gallery, which highlights Native American philosophies, there are four lines in the floor. What do the lines mean, we asked our cultural interpreter. The four seasons, he replied. The exhibit in-between each line represented a time of year, such as the Denver pow-wow in the spring. Given the importance of the seasons in many native cultures, that seemed an important point to make yet that connotation could be lost on many visitors. Our guide then said that in Indian culture, answers aren’t always immediately apparent. You have to ask. And in the museum’s soaring atrium, prisms cast a rainbow up the wall and to the top of the dome on the solstice, underscoring how important those dates are to many native cultures. Again, there was no written explanation. Over dinner, our group talked about this philosophy as an organizing principal for a museum. It was pointed out that iconography is not entirely explained in places like the Vatican. And in poetry, spelling out the meaning is not artful. The paraphrased prose is flat compared to the poetry. But museums are meant to inform the public and does being subtle or coy in delivery, serve that purpose? As journalists, perhaps we’re more curious about the “why.” Visitors may be still enriched at the museum, though they may not understand all the significance. Understanding another culture is never easy, no matter how much you know. --Vanessa Hua, San Francisco Chronicle Posted on 03.09.05 at 1:36 AM by Victor Merina Museum Tackles Stereotypes, Celebrates CultureBefore entering the National Museum of the American Indian, I was skeptical. Back in September, I produced a radio show about the museum’s opening on September 21, 2004. It’s hard to believe that this is the first national museum in the country dedicated exclusively to Native Americans. A few of our guests said a museum celebrating Native culture is long overdue, but the louder voices argued a critical piece of history is missing. Groups like the American Indian Movement feel the “museum falls short in that it does not characterize or does it display the sordid and tragic history of America’s holocaust against the Native Nations and peoples of the Americas.” They’re calling for the museum to be renamed the National Holocaust Museum of the American Indian. A Jewish museum with no mention of the Holocaust is unthinkable. Doesn’t the same apply to a museum about Native Americans? Helen Maynor Scheirbeck, NMAI’s assistant director for public programs, says while the museum aims to present stories, facts and statistics about the past, the main goal is to focus on the cultural aspects of Native life. “We consider ourselves to be a museum about the people who are living today,” she said. “The question we hope to answer is, ‘Who are Indian peoples?’” The NMAI aims to tackle that question with three permanent exhibits: “Our Universes” features tribal philosophies and world views; “Our Peoples” a looks at historical events from a native peoples’ perspective; and “Our Lives” focuses on Native people today. The museum was busy on Monday. The majority of the visitors seemed to be incredibly engaged. “I had no idea they took blood samples from Indians,” said one patron. Another was shocked to learn that Indians were forced to carry ID cards providing they were in fact Indian. Phillip Hillaire, our tour guide, encounters people who’ve never met a “real Indian” on a daily basis. Hillaire, who is a member of the Lummi tribe, says he’s used to the bizarre remarks and questions by now. “Kids often say, ‘Wow, you’re the first Indian I’ve ever met.’” Adults almost always ask about casinos. “A lot of them come in here thinking we’re all wealthy, but we’re not. This museum is helping to erase those stereotypes. It’s a good start.” --Rose Aguilar, KALW-FM San Francisco Posted on 03.08.05 at 7:42 AM by Rose Aguilar, KALW-FM San Franciso First Impressions from a Northwest Reporter
The café is divided into geographical regions. Because I identify frybread with traditional Indian meals, I sought that out and found it in the Great Plains section. It was labeled as a side dish. I got a quinoa salad from South America, pumpkin soup from the Northern Woodlands and pinto bean and corn enchiladas from Meso America. I skipped the Northwest Coast, because I don’t eat salmon anyway. During lunch, I asked associate curator Emil Her Many Horses if there were any Northwest tribes among the 24 tribes represented in the museum and was disappointed when he said Yakama was the only one from Washington. However, my tour guide, as it turned out, was from the Lummi Nation. And while they’re not exactly in my coverage area, I am well acquainted with that part of the state, since I spend nearly every weekend there. Phillip Hillaire moved to DC last summer to work in the museum. He was robbed within a month. His mother attended an Indian boarding school and his grandfather was given the name Hillaire by French missionaries who thought he was hilarious. When I was new to the state, I liked calling Western Washington’s northernmost county “What.com.” I knew it was really an Indian word, but today I learned that Whatcom means “the sound of water.”
In the Universes exhibit, Hillaire drew our attention to a Welcoming the Morning song, which he said he recognized when he started at the museum because it was a Northwest Coastal song by the Squamish Tribe.
The sculptures were a highlight. A tall bronze one near a window depicted George Washington and some Oneida Indians “burying the hatchet,” literally. A bear, wolf and turtle were represented as well. And a little Indian girl holding a doll stood behind them, looking up at a bird in the bronze tree. I also enjoyed Allan Houser’s sculptures in the Native Modernism section. After hearing that Houser was Apache, I thought, “Of course.” The faces on his sculptures looked Apache. I don’t even know what it means to look Apache, but something about the broad stalwart faces and long flowing hair looked different to me than representations I’ve seen of other tribes. Later in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs meeting room, I admired a statue of an Indian aiming an arrow at the sky. (or lighting fixture, to be precise.) He looked Apache to me too, and no wonder, because it was a Houser as well. The museum displayed Houser’s series called Mother and Child, in which the mothers clutched their children and hid them under clothing to protect them from soldiers. In most of the sculptures, the faces of mother and child were the only discernable features. In the Lives exhibit, Hillaire pointed out a ceramic Lummi figurine from among dozens in a serpentine display case containing heads and figures made of clay, wood and stone. Next to them were gold pieces and ears of corn. Corn was more valuable to the Indians than gold, because it sustained the people, but the white man, of course, was more interested in the gold. A group leader from New Jersey, who merged his teenage group with ours, mentioned that some of them would be visiting the Holocaust museum later. He seemed defensive, I thought, about complaints he must have heard about the lack of Indian Holocaust history at this museum. However, a Seminole display nearby documented several instances where the fight to remain in the Everglades cost tribal members their lives or dignity. As we left that area, Hillaire showed us a wall where the names of the remaining Western Hemisphere tribes were projected in circular patterns. The names didn’t seem to be in any order, and I couldn’t actually find any from my region. I think Klallam was the closest of the ones I read. But because I couldn’t find the names I was looking for, I wound up reading a whole bunch of names I’d never seen before. Neat trick, to get me to learn something new. --Kari Neumeyer, The Olympian Posted on 03.08.05 at 2:30 AM by Kari Neumeyer, The Olympian (Olympia, WA) On Museum Tour, Disappointment by the BucketfulThe last time I visited the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington—about a month after it opened last year—I looked in vain for any trace of my tribe. I was disappointed. That experience and reaction are not unusual for many Native people visiting their new museum, large though limited. Proud of the museum we are, like it we do—but what would make us really LOVE the place is if all 560 tribes of Native Americans got equal time and space in the museum’s many displays. Or if the whole place were devoted to just one tribe: our own. Especially mine, the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma. During Monday’s museum tour for the traveling seminar journalists, I broke off after a few exhibits to continue my quest. Ah, finally, I found it. There it was, a mention of my tribe—and I was thrilled. Until I started reading. In the Kiowa tribal exhibit in a fourth-floor section called “Our Peoples” was this headline: “Osages MASSACRE Adante’s Band.” The description was almost newspaper-style, quoting survivors. It reported an 1833 attack by Osages in a place now called, gulp, “Beheading Mountain.” “The Osages had beheaded their victims with swords and left the heads in brass buckets the Kiowas had. Not many escaped.” Ouch. It’s a good example of being careful what you ask for. It’s also a good example of how an “Indian story” can fall short and disappoint. Now, next time I tour the museum, I’ll look for a NICE mention of my tribe—for what media critics are fond of calling a “positive story.” Now, let me tell you about my ancestor, Three Buckets …
Denny McAuliffe, reznet project director, University of Montana
Posted on 03.08.05 at 2:13 AM by Victor Merina A Reporter’s Perspective: Asking the Touchy Question, Looking for the Real AnswerOn the first full day of the Covering Indian Country seminar and we’ve all learned this about American Indian etiquette: Never ask someone if they’re “full-blooded.” We received this advice from Cristina Azocar and Kenneth Adams, members of the Upper Mattaponni Tribe in Virginia. (Adams is chief, and Azocar is his niece.) They were part of the final session in a day that included talks by staff members of the National Museum of the American Indian, an abbreviated but excellent tour of the museum and a personal session with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chair of the Committee on Indian Affairs. Even such a short time into a week of learning about American Indian issues, it’s clear that Indian Country is a specialized topic. Tribal governments, native traditions, cultural nuances. One could spend a lifetime learning about the American-Indian experience and still have several lifetimes of material left to learn – as made clear by speaker Patricia Zell, who is into a 30-year career working on American Indian issues. But in other ways, covering American Indians is not a unique experience: Talking about race, ethnicity and culture are touchy subjects no matter who you’re covering. Part of the aim of the seminar is to learn to cover American Indian issues with sensitivity. So it’s good we established on the first day that the “full-blooded” question is insulting. But is it a good idea to avoid questions because they’re potentially insulting or, at the least, uncomfortable? I, and the others in my group, say no. We’re reporters. It’s our job to ask questions. This topic reminds me of the bumper sticker “Polite women rarely make history.” I usually don’t like bumper stickers and try not to quote them, I can’t argue with this statement, even when it’s plastered on the rear-end of a car. The same can be said of reporting. Let’s modify it to, “Intimidated reporters rarely write interesting stories.” In stories about American Indian issues, background matters. Is your dad Indian? Your mom? Do you live on a reservation? Why? Why not? Did other kids tease you about your heritage? Does it hurt that you’re light-skinned and feel you have to justify your claim of American Indian heritage to others? Maybe a reporter will feel self-conscious asking these questions, but in many cases asking them will result in a better and more compassionate, thoroughly reported story. During Black History Month, my paper (The Asheville Citizen-Times in Asheville, N.C.) concentrated on covering stories important to the black community. Frank discussions about race were necessary, and the result was some very satisfying reporting. Sometimes it’s not comfortable to ask, or answer, questions like, “Do you prefer to be called black or African-American,” or, “Did you experience racism as a child?” or, “Is it at all frustrating that the small number of blacks in this community means there’s a small chance you’ll ever have a black representative in local government?” But the interviews taught me that usually, people want to talk about their experiences, especially if questions are posed in a sincere desire to learn. American Indians throughout the day stressed that news coverage of their issues will help their cause. They said they want stories that go beyond stereotypes to the core of issues like sovereignty, gaming, health care and education that truly affect their lives. The journalists in this seminar seem truly interested in understanding the American Indian experience and want to cover the issues. But our jobs require that sometimes all involved endure discomfort to produce a relevant story. Sure, there are tricky questions, but if any of us are going to accomplish our goals, we’ve got to ask them anyway.
Jill Ingram
Posted on 03.08.05 at 2:02 AM by Victor Merina NCAI Director Pushes Tribes to Reach Out, ‘Turn the Tide’With the lessons of her clan’s late chief to guide her, Jacqueline Johnson is trying to change the way things get done in Indian Country.
“We need everyone. We can’t always be our best advocates,” Johnson said, recounting her mentor’s words to a group of journalists Sunday in Washington, D.C. “We know that we have to reach out further.” Johnson, who heads the nation’s oldest and largest American Indian organization, kicked off a weeklong journalism fellowship with a talk about her group’s priorities. The journalists are spending eight days studying how to cover Indian Country, with some intensive training first in Washington. Johnson said tribes are getting better at working together to pursue more strategic court cases, as civil-rights groups did in the past, and are trying to be more productive at lobbying lawmakers. American Indians traditionally have done a good job of communicating among themselves about the important issues, she said, and now she hopes they are getting better at talking to others. In doing so, Johnson hopes tribes can be successful at her organization’s three top priorities: preserving sovereignty, promoting economic development and pushing for a resolution to the drawn-out trust problems. Posted on 03.07.05 at 3:23 AM by Michelle DeArmond, Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise The Journalist’s Road … to Native America
Indian Country. It’s a legal state. It’s a state of mind. And it’s the cultural landscape that is home to more than 4 million Native Americans whose lives have been often overlooked, misrepresented or sloppily reported by the media. The mission of the “Covering Indian Country” traveling seminar, which inspired this blog, is to improve that coverage. Our goal is to introduce journalists who are unfamiliar with that community to a world where stereotypes and myths sometimes prevail, while welcoming back other journalists to a world where untold stories are waiting to be explored. The workshop is sponsored by the Western Knight Center in partnership with the Native American Journalists Association. Our ambitious goal is to take 20 journalists on a journey through the thicket of Native issues and help them better understand the people, culture and topics in Indian Country. The seminar will start in Washington, D.C. where the journalists will gather on Capitol Hill and at the newly-opened National Museum of the American Indian. From there, they will fly to Albuquerque and visit the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and travel to the Acoma Pueblo’s historic Sky City. They will bus to Window Rock, Arizona and the heart of the Navajo Nation before traveling to Palm Springs, California to talk about tribal economic development and Indian gaming. The journalists will represent news organizations from Bangor, Maine and Rapid City, South Dakota to big-city newspapers in San Diego, Denver and Seattle. They will include journalists from 16 publications and news bureaus, as well as four broadcast organizations. They come from states that are home to more than 300 tribes. And their experience in Indian Country will range from the veteran reporter at home on “the rez” to the newcomer uncertain on the beat. With this blog, some of these newly dubbed Western Knight fellows will share their experiences and thoughts, not only during our week together but, we hope, long after they have returned to their newsrooms. You will hear information about some of the experts and scholars who will speak to these journalists and who have shared their insights. You will hear from journalists who cover Indian Country and from sources who are covered by those journalists. You will hear the personal stories and read the published stories of those enriched by the time spent there. Throughout all this, we invite comments or questions from those of you who read our posts and who are interested in or familiar with these issues. You may not agree with this whirlwind attempt to understand this vast territory. Or you may remain skeptical about what can be learned in these too-short forays into complex issues. But we hope you agree that we all benefit when we raise the quality and deepen the coverage of stories that come from Indian Country. Posted on 03.03.05 at 12:07 PM by Victor Merina |
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According to the elders of my tribe, the Nez Perce Indians handed down their values and history through oral tradition for centuries. Particularly during the long winters when people gathered in longhouses, stories were passed on to younger generations who in turn, would repeat those passages for their children.
Getting access to tribal government documents can be a headache sometimes and nobody knows that better than the staff of the Navajo Times newspaper.
From the graceful line of Eagle Dancers to the exquisitely-lined faces of elderly villagers, the images of Pueblo Indians in New Mexico has been captured through the lens of Lee Marmon for more than a half-century.
It’s a long way from his beginnings as a photographer taking pictures of people in the pueblo while delivering groceries in his pickup truck. “That’s how I got some of my best stuff,” he said.
It’s a tendency for even many Indian journalists to gravitate towards the tried, if not true, stories from Native America: poverty, alcoholism, suicide, racism and failing schools.
Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, wants to “turn the tide” and help tribes become more effective at fighting for their rights from Congress to the courthouse. The key to that success, she said, can be found in the words of her Tlinglit mentor.
