Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Special COVID-19 Message from Jessica White Plume of the Lakota Tribe

Jessica White Plume Jessica White Plume

In an effort to keep the American Indian community better informed about COVID-19, Buffalo’s Fire has asked several American Indian community spiritual and cultural leaders to share special messages about how we can cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

To watch the video featuring Jessica White Plume of the Lakota tribe on how to make homemade masks, click here.


As you listen, be mindful of the thoughtful, safety recommendations suggested so we can all better protect ourselves and stay safe and healthy during this pandemic.


More than two million people around the world have died from COVID-19. This includes more than 400,000 Americans and many members of the American Indian community. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Center for Disease Control recommends that all Americans practice social distancing, wash their hands frequently with soap for 20 seconds, wear masks in public and sign up for COVID-19 vaccines in your area when available.

To watch other special video messages, click on the links below:

To watch the video featuring Dorothy White Horn of the Kiowa Tribe click here.

To watch the video featuring Blas Preciado of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma click here.

To watch the video featuring Leo Yankton of the Oglala Lakota tribe, click here.

To watch the video featuring Robert Old Horn of Crow Nation in English, click here and in Crow, click here.

To watch the video featuring Freida Jacques of the Onondaga Nation click here.

To watch the video featuring Jasper Youngbear of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes click here.

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.