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Fearless Indian paper takes on native government

Getting access to tribal government documents can be a headache sometimes and nobody knows that better than the staff of the Navajo Times newspaper.

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