Staff

Founder-Director Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance/Online publisher Buffalo’s Fire

jodi@imfreedomalliance.org

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder-director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization located in Bismarck, N.D. The IMFA publishes on Buffalo’s Fire, an independent digital news site.

Jodi is an award-winning journalist and opinion writer whose recognition and awards come from mainstream, military, and university journalism programs and the Indigenous Journalists Association. In 2023, the IJA awarded her the inaugural Tim Giago Free Press Award. In 2021, she was selected as a Bush Fellow for leadership, recognizing her decades-long commitment to journalism and her vision for well-informed Indigenous communities. In 2021, Jodi was also named a John S. Knight Community Impact Fellow of Stanford University.

After reporting for daily newspapers for nearly 15 years, she returned to her ancestral homelands of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. She served as the executive director of the Fort Berthold Communications Director — overseeing the Three Affiliated Tribes newspaper and radio station – before starting a non-profit dedicated to Freedom of Information and open records. She also enjoyed being a Native American Studies instructor at the Nueta, Hidatsa and Sahnish College in New Town, N.D. where she taught courses on the media and tribal governance.

Prior to that, she worked more than a decade as a national reporter on American Indian issues for Lee Newspapers, based at the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska and the Missoulian in Montana. Jodi has been awarded several fellowships, including an MIT Knight Science Journalism fellowship in 2021-2021. She was named a Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard University in 2003.

She has also received national awards and honors for news and opinion writing, including the Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest, Native American Journalists Association, Montana Newspaper Association, Columbia University School of Journalism and the University of Nebraska. She was also awarded the Paul D. Savanuck Military Journalist of the Year in 1999. Her writing is featured in “The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity,” published by Columbia University Press.

Jodi is Mandan-Hidatsa and Lakota. She lives in Bismarck, N.D. with her husband and daughter.

Digital Content Manager

castle@imfreedomalliance.org

Castle Fox serves as the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance administrative assistant. She was raised in Twin Buttes, N.D., located on the Fort Berthold Reservation. She belongs to the Knife Clan and is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. For the last six years she’s worked as a customer service representative for a number of local businesses in the Bismarck-Mandan area.

Castle enjoys working with the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance and Buffalo’s Fire, the online news publication of IMFA, to be part of an uprising of independent Indigenous media for Indian Country.

She plans to remain with IMFA while currently furthering her education in business administration at the United Tribes Technical College. She’s devoted to her local community and hopes to help improve it for the future generations. She’s a lifelong resident of North Dakota. Since relocating from the Fort Berthold Reservation, she now lives in Bismarck, N.D. with her five family members. She’s caring and quick to help friends and relatives.

Senior Reporter

brian@imfreedomalliance.org

Brian Bull is a proud member of the Nez Perce Tribe, and he’s also proud to have been a journalist for half of his life. His trail includes stints at National Public Radio, NPR affiliates including South Dakota Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, KLCC in Eugene, Oregon, and substitute hosting for National Native News. His digital/print/photographic work has been featured in Indian Country Today, The Oregonian, and People Magazine. He’s also been a longtime mentor with NPR’s NextGen Radio Project, as well as a former Snowden Fellow mentor and journalism professor at the University of Oregon. Bull’s work has netted him more than a hundred accolades, include the Best Radio Journalist Award from the Indigenous Journalists Association in 2001, four national Edward R. Murrow awards from the RTDNA, Ohio AP’s Best Reporter Award in 2013, and a free bag of coffee for presenting at a local SPJ panel in 2018. He enjoys sharing the voices of underrepresented communities and occasionally wandering the forests, looking for Bigfoot. He has three kids, a wife, and five unruly cats who keep him in his place.

Bull is an alum of Macalester College, and recently finished his Masters Degree in American Journalism Online at New York University. He’s excited to be with Buffalo’s Fire, and will share Native/Indigenous stories from the Pacific Northwest where he’s based. This means he’ll always be two hours behind the rest of the staff, which is sort of the story of his life.

Bismarck Documenters Site Manager

daniela@imfreedomalliance.org

Daniela Aki (Hunkpapa Lakota and Mexican American) is the Bismarck Documenters Site Manager for Buffalo’s Fire. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in Bismarck, ND, in 2023. She is currently working toward her MBA at Sitting Bull College, supporting the North Dakota Tribal College System (NDTCS), which poured a staggering $169.5 million into the North Dakota economy from 2022-2023.

Community support is her main passion, and she is excited to activate new, and current, Documenters in the area to civic engagement and their right to freedom of information. Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance provides the perfect platform for community outreach and Daniela knows her community will rise to the challenge of commitment to information-sharing among, and through, Indigenous communities, which often lack consistent access to dependable sources of information. Through Documenters, she envisions honest and reliable information to connect Indigenous populations, wherever they reside in North Dakota.

Director of Research

teresa@imfreedomalliance.org

Teresa Trumbly Lamsam, Ph.D., is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation. A seasoned journalist, she has served as executive editor of the Native Health News Alliance and taught journalism at several universities. Teresa’s work emphasizes trauma-informed journalism and cultural accuracy in reporting. As Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives for the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, she integrates her extensive research background with her commitment to Native voices and addressing community information needs.

Data Journalist

pier@imfreedomalliance.org

Pier Paolo is a journalist and technologist with over 20 years of experience integrating storytelling, media, and technology. He is passionate about discovering new ways to engage audiences through innovative content, data-driven insights, and user-friendly tools. Pier Paolo has led newsrooms, built content management systems, and developed AI-powered solutions for journalism. At the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, he is contributing to the newsroom as a data journalist and is IMFA’s Product and Audience Growth Lead.

Bismarck State College Intern

alix@imfreedomalliance.org

Alix (Leta) Dobler is an intern for Buffalo’s Fire. Growing up primarily on the Standing Rock Reservation, she graduated from McLaughlin High School in 2023. She began her college journey at Sitting Bull College before transferring to Bismarck State College. Today, she awaits an associate’s degree in mass communications. Driven by a passion to help others, Alix aims to make a positive impact through reporting, conversation and assistance to those in need. She strives to stay grounded in her home values as life takes her elsewhere.