It had been more than a decade since I attended a National Congress of American Indians event and the first time the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance set up a booth at NCAI. It’s an ideal venue to share the mission and vision of our nonprofit media organization.
More than 2,000 tribal leaders — and those with a vested interest in advancing the sovereignty of American Indians — converged upon the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans last week to discuss an array of issues central to tribal governance.
It was the largest attended convention during the 80-year storied history of the National Congress of American Indians. Three of us manned the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance-Buffalo’s Fire booth to share our story about how freedom of information and independent media operations are vital to sovereignty and strong democracies.
I once regularly reported on national American Indian issues for Lee Enterprises newspapers. While in New Orleans, I had the chance to visit with many tribal leaders and tribe-focused advocates. I regained a new appreciation for the work being done by leaders and organizations across the United States on behalf of Native peoples.
Much of the advocacy work being done was presented during NCAI workshops, caucus meetings and task force committees. During one of those meetings around 2004, I first learned of the alarming statistics regarding violence against American Indian women. My editors encouraged me to explore that issue to a greater extent. I started writing those stories two decades ago.
Our booth workers and I thank everyone who stopped by the IMFA-Buffalo’s Fire booth to learn more about how independent media operations are vital to sound tribal governance.
The Native Nations Institute – just across the aisle from our booth — epitomizes some important tribal governance issues as the “leading research, education and outreach organization supporting the nation-rebuilding efforts of Indigenous peoples worldwide as they seek to strengthen their internal governance capacities and realize their own political, economic and community development objectives.”
I’ve used Native Nations Institute curricula to teach tribal government courses at the Nueta, Hidatsa and Sahnish College on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. I did so in 2013-2014 at the request of my late aunt, Alyce Spotted Bear, who was then the founder and director of the NHS Native Studies Department.
My aunt was also the last woman to be elected as chairwoman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Alyce is one of only two women to be elected as chairwoman of the Three Affiliated Tribes. It’s leaders like her who I admire, a person who serves the people as opposed to being self-serving.
My aunt also encouraged me to teach a media course at the NHS college. We don’t have enough journalism or communications programs with the Tribal College University system across Indian Country. While the Native Nations Institute teachings emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability, those conversations need to include the role of the local media within tribal communities.
Newspapers and radio stations deserve greater independence so they can fulfill the dual role of tribal government accountability and amplifying the voice of tribal citizens so tribal leaders can “act in accordance to the will of the people.” The latter role meets the three pillars of tribal sovereignty.
One of my favorite scenes in the press freedom documentary, “Bad Press,” is when Oklahoma’s Mvskoke Media reporter Angel Ellis walks to a wall of file cabinets filled with archived issues of the Muscogee Nation’s tribe owned newspaper. Ellis pulled out several newspaper issues filled with feel-good stories about events within the tribe.
Ellis said you would think nothing bad ever happened in the tribe.
But then, the tribe passed a press freedom ordinance that allowed the Mvskoke Media reporters to act more independently as journalists free from censorship. From that point on, a number of newspaper stories addressed matters the elected Muscogee Nation leaders would have censored in the past.
Even though many of my Native journalism colleagues across the country fight for freedom of information, the somber reality is only 5 of 574 federally recognized tribes have passed laws that protect press freedom. We can’t have one tribe every decade pass a press freedom law. We need Indian Country leaders to band together and pass a resolution, possibly through NCAI, vowing to enact press freedom laws across the country.