Trailblazer, staunch advocate for Native American rights, Harriett Skye, dies at 86

Harriett Skye, a pioneering Sioux woman who paved the way for Native Americans and hosted an unprecedented TV program in Bismarck, has died at age 86.

Skye was born on Dec. 6, 1931, in Rosebud, S.D., according to her online obituary. The eldest of seven kids, she grew up on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Fort Yates. After graduating high school, her career began as the editor of the tribal newspaper, The Standing Rock Star.

She later moved to Bismarck, where she took a job leading public relations at United Tribes Technical College. She was an editor of United Tribes News, the college’s monthly newspaper, and hosted a television program called “Indian Country Today,” which aired from 1973 to 1984 on the local NBC affiliate, KFYR-TV.

In the first 10 years of the bi-weekly program, Skye conducted 246 interviews with Native American leaders and newsmakers. The program reached viewers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Her interviews likely inspired other Native Americans — particularly Native American women — to enter the field of journalism.

North Dakota Indian Affairs Commissioner Scott Davis, who knew Skye since he was a child and worked with her at United Tribes, said she “always had positive energy.”

Davis said he worked with Skye when she was the college’s vice president of intertribal programs. He said she instilled upon him the importance of meeting people and making connections and said she was “very well-connected.”

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