Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Kateri Tekawitha: Canonization in the Context of Spiritual Conquest

Kirsten Baesler speaks to delegates during the 2024 NDGOP Convention at the Sanford Athletic Complex in Fargo on April 5, 2024. Baesler is running for reelection as the state’s superintendent. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

When Pope Benedict XVI canonizes Kateri Tekawitha (1656-1680) this month, she will be declared the Catholic Church’s first American Indian saint. What is the historical context of her beatification? It is the more than 500 year crusade for the spiritual…read more

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.