As Rob Capriccioso reports, the new “GlobalBlack” section on Huffington post announced this week has Natives wondering why they’re not getting the same attention on the uber popular news blog.

Indian Country Today asked several Native news watchers why they thought Indian Country deserves the same attention

“I think a mainstream media site could feasibly host a Native American section,” said Brian Bull, assistant news editor at Wisconsin Public Radio. “We’re the First Nations… as far as relevancy’s sake, there’s history, politics and financial influence galore within Indian country, which can certainly establish Native people as a relatively small—but significant—demographic.” He noted that there are 565 federally recognized tribes and many state recognized ones with unique and powerful stories to share in every major news-making area.

Native attention has increasingly turned toward the Huffington Post because it’s a news-based website showing major signs of growth and strong financial backing.

…

“Huffington Post’s site would only benefit from having a Native American section—after all, news should reflect all people regardless of race,” said Lori Edmo-Suppah, editor of the Sho-Ban News, which covers the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. “Currently the public doesn’t know enough about Native people because our news is rarely covered, as many still think our people are in the past.”

Edmo-Suppah said there would “definitely” be enough Indian contributors to make a strong page, and the right person just needs to seek them out. “Information would depend on who is hired to write it and it must be someone who is aware of current and past issues, because Native people always have to remember teachings passed on through culture and traditions.”

Jenna Cederberg

Indian Country Today Media Network site launches
The new Indian Country Today Media Network launched this week under the motto “Serving the Nations, Celebrating the People.”

The site include news alert and recent posts section under a slideshow-like format containing its features. Not only are the photos done more justice, videos are now also have a spot to call their own. Reader shared content is being actively solicited.

I spent some time on the site Friday afternoon, but not enough. Take some time to look around if you haven’t yet.

Oneida Nation CEO Ray Halbritter posted this in his site introduction message:

The website will serve as a one-stop destination for the vast and growing number of people interested in our news, culture, ideals and businesses. Most important is the website’s social network: The nations’ first true online community and forum for all of our disparate and common interests.

Maggie Goode first Native American appointed to federal board
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes member Maggie Goode was recently named to the USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation board of directors. It makes her the first Native and first Montanan to hold a spot on the board, the Char-Koosta reports.

Goode’s family ranches in northwestern Montana, near the small town of Niarada. She will serve a four-year term.

The FCIC consists of a ten-member board, with each being nominated to and then selected and appointed for a four-year term by the Department of Agriculture Secretary. Goode said, she is still unaware of who may have nominated her for the position.

Goode said, she is honored for the appointment and is pleased that a tribal member will be involved in the decision making process. “Tribes need involvement at all levels; county, state and federal,” she added.

Crow Tribe discusses water settlement bill
From Susan Olp of the Billings Gazette:

CROW AGENCY — In 1998, Clara Nomee, then chair of the Crow Tribe, instigated negotiations with state officials over a possible water compact.

On Tuesday, she sat on the stage of the Multipurpose Building in Crow Agency as speaker after speaker, including U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, talked about the importance of the recently passed federal bill that would quantify the tribe’s water rights and bring hundreds of millions of dollars in water projects to the Crow Tribe.

“It’s for the benefit of employment of the people,” Nomee said in a soft voice, over the din of a loudspeaker. “And it’s for the betterment of the reservation.”

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Follow the link to the “latest evolution of Indian Country Today” and you’ll be greeted by an under construction sign of sorts.

But on Jan. 14, ICT will make an expansion as it launches an upgraded and expanded version of itself with Indian Country Today Media Network. New features will include the updated site and a weekly magazine, PR Newswire announced.

Ray Halbritter, Nation Representative and CEO of the Oneida Nation, which owns ITC, made the announcement through Newswire on Thursday.

Thanks to Halbritter’s vision, guidance and his desire to keep pace with today’s expanding media environment, Indian Country Today Media Network was created. “It has always been my desire to create a destination that can bring all the Nations together,” said Halbritter. “With Indian Country Today Media Network we have created a full service media platform that is current, timely, sophisticated, inclusive and widely available. Our whole community now has a place to go to get news, exchange ideas, and communicate with one another.”

The website and magazine will provide essential news and information from Indian Country, featuring new artists and cultural highlights, and give life to the most forceful voices in the national community. The network will also offer online services in the areas of education, business and events—everything from listings of Tribal Colleges to the latest pow wows.

Jenna Cederberg

Native-owned public TV station holding auction this week
KSKC-Public TV, broadcasting from its home on the Salish Kootenai College campus on the Flathead Indian Reservation, will kick off its annual fundraiser on Monday. The live broadcasts and auctions are legend in the area. You can get any number handmade, hand-painted items, or even a year’s worth of cookies (a dozen delivered to you each month), as the Missoulian’s Vince Devlin reported this week.

The TV station is only one of a few on Native-owned in the country. Station manager Frank Tyro keeps things running there, with local content and regular public TV programming.

Tune in to see for yourself this week (you can watch online, too!) and give to a good cause.

MTPR new director Sally Mauk talks with Native journalist Duncan McCue
Listen to the interview: Duncan McCue has been a TV reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the last 12 years, producing stories for the CBC’s flagship evening news program called “The National.” He’s also one of the few Native journalists in Canada. In this feature interview, McCue talks with News Director Sally Mauk about his career – and about reporting on Native issues.

Little Bighorn monument still awaits improvements
Its a popular monument in dire need of more space, and talks about upgrades first discussed almost 30 years ago at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument are set to start again.
As the Billings Gazette reporter Lorna Thackeray reports, Battlefield Superintendent Kate Hammond has scheduled meetings to talk about fixing issues like museum overcrowding, park lot woes and a “chronologically backward” tourists roadway.

Hammond wants all stakeholders at the table. But that’s a tall order

Moving forward has never been easy at the 1876 battlefield surrounded both by controversy and the Crow Reservation.

Expanding park boundaries seems always to be the sticking point. In the past, the Crow Tribe has resisted efforts to enlarge the park, which Hammond said would require congressional approval. It is unlikely Congress would approve a boundary change without the tribe’s support.

The Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee, a nonprofit organization set up with the idea of buying land for the National Park Service, has 3,500 acres of land it would love to donate, said Jim Court. Court is a former Little Bighorn Battlefield superintendent and was chief fundraiser for the Preservation Committee.

A ‘Good Day to Die’ wins another award
Received more good news from “A Good Day to Die” filmmaker Lynn Salt this week: The film, based on the story of Dennis Banks and the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) movement he co-founded in 1968, won Best Documentary at the American Indian Film Institute Film Festival in San Francisco.

“We are moving toward distribution and will let you know when we have it,” Salt said in an e-mail.

Buffalo Post will keep readers updated as well.

Jenna Cederberg

Some thoughts from Native Sun News publisher Tim Giago, as posted on Huggington Post, for this Thanksgiving Day:

By now I believe most Americans understand that the creative stories surrounding the first Thanksgiving are, for the most part, a myth.

There are few Native Americans who believe this day meant that peace and harmony had become a reality between the Indians and the Pilgrims. Most Natives know that this was just the beginning of an onslaught that would reduce the number of Indians from more than one million to about 200,000 by the beginning of the 20th century.

Over the years I have heard many stories about the psychological impact of Thanksgiving celebrations at schools where a few Native Americans attended classes with predominantly white students. Recalling her school days in Kansas, one Caddo Indian lady said, “All of the kids, except me and two other Native Americans, showed up in class wearing cardboard feathers with their faces painted in various colors. The white kids put their hands over their mouths and whooped and ran around the classroom making these awful sounds. We Indian kids were mortified and embarrassed by all of this.”

She continued, “What if on Black History Day or on Martin Luther King’s birthday all of the white kids came to school with their faces colored black? Wouldn’t that be an insult to the African American students?”

But the day known as Thanksgiving has been accepted as a legal holiday by most Native Americans because the idea of a day to give thanks is such a strong part of their traditions and culture.

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Navajo Times reporter Jason Begay, whose excellent work has often been featured on Buffalo Post, is returning to the University of Montana as the most recent addition to the School of Journalism faculty.

As Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin writes here in her Missoula Editor blog:

I got to know Jason a number of years ago, while teaching Public Affairs Reporting at the journalism school. He was a student in my class and an inspiration to everyone in the class – myself included. He is truly one of the most gifted journalists I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with.

Begay, who will be an assistant professor at UM and also direct the RezNet online news feed, has worked at the New York Times, The Oregonian, Duluth News Tribune, the Wichita Eagle and The Oakland Tribune.

Welcome!

Gwen Florio