Genesis of Buffalo’s Fire

 
Welcome to Buffalo’s Fire.
 
After working in the mainstream press for some 15 years, I ended my daily news beat as a reporter for Lee Enterprises in 2009. I left the Missoulian newspaper in Montana to pursue a number of goals outside corporate media. I started working on a manuscript, enrolled in a master’s degree program and I secured the buffalosfire.com domain site.  
 
I named the site in memory of my mom, G. Janet “Gertsy” (Spotted Bear) Gunderson. She had died on July 14, 2003 in a car accident. My mother loved the outdoors and she was particularly fond of the delicate tiger lilies that grow here on the North Dakota high prairie.
 
The flowers typically are in full bloom around July. They favor the north side of hills. It’s always a thrill to see the first tiger lily of the season. They are to be appreciated. They don’t stay with us long. For a minute, I thought about naming the website Tiger Lily. A tribute to Mom. I told my husband this. He then brought up Peter Pan.
 
I had to plead ignorant bliss because my literary arc didn’t include Peter Pan. I wasn’t familiar with the caricature Tiger Lily.  I had to look this up. OK. End of story. I decided against the name. But, unwilling to concede the name of the flower that grows in my backyard, I opted for something better – the Indigenous description of the pretty, bright-orange lily.

 
I’m a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The Mandan word for tiger lily is “the buffalo’s fire.” The name makes me think of buffalo huddled around a flowery-orange campfire. They are having a good conversation.
 
I kept the name when I transformed the Buffalo’s blog into a for-profit news site. I had a highly effective news aggregator developed to share news. I had some original content. My idea then was to sell digital advertising to create a revenue stream. I had hundreds of thousands of monthly page views. But the site wasn’t a moneymaker.
 
In 2013, I left Montana and finally took action on a long-time goal. I moved home to the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. I took on full-time employment for three years. Meanwhile, website maintenance lingered on the website. Buffalo’s Fire ended up being hacked. It stayed dark for some time. Everything built was lost. Content. Readers.
 
In 2016, I founded the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization. We do our media advocacy work through IMFA. We publish news on our digital news site. This is the genesis story of Buffalo’s Fire. The name – and memory of my mom – lives on.
 
Thank you for joining us around the campfire.
 
 
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear
Publisher of Buffalo’s Fire