Buffalo’s Fire team member Daniela Aki wins creative writing award

The Tribal College Journal recognized Daniela Aki, Buffalo’s Fire’s community engagement manager, and her short story “What are Indianettes?” as a top fiction entry in its 2026 Creative Writing, Art & Film Contest. Aki, Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and a first-generation Mexican American, is a business administration student at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota. She received her award at the AIHEC annual conference in Bismarck, ND, on March 18. 

“Bringing home a winner's plaque to my family meant more than anything,” said Aki, who is a married mother of five. “They swarmed me, cheering and hugging me, and their excitement helped me to feel proud of myself.” 

Aki said she’s thankful to her parents, “who instilled in me a love of learning and storytelling,” and the Tribal College Journal team “for allowing students a place to be heard, seen, and celebrated.”

Tribal College Journals competition judges and guest editors Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. and Shane Hawk, editors of the 2023 Native horror anthology “Never Whistle at Night,” announced the creative writing contest winners on March 13. They chose three top entries in each category — fiction, nonfiction and poetry — and four honorable mentions. Students will have their work published in the 2026 edition of Tribal College Journal Student and on the journal’s website.