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The Journalist’s Road … to Native America

Acoma Pueblo

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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