Abstract
Native Americans, marginalized and largely invisible in the American news media, have long sought to tell their own stories free from the myths and stereotypes that have distorted their image. This book tackles this issue directly, exploring the evolution of Native American media in the digital age, gathering perspectives from leading Native journalists and offering ideas that promise to extend the Native voice and set the record straight.
Researchers Victoria and Benjamin LaPoe write that American Indians are “the most invisible minority,” comprising about 2% of the U.S. population. Yet there are more than 550 federally recognized tribes, each with its own cultural practices and traditions, including storytelling traditions. “Each story has a reason—history, moral tale, and even a community’s place in society,” the LaPoes write. The rise of digital technology, they continue, gives Native journalists the ability to amplify this storytelling tradition and offer authentic Indian perspectives for Native as well as non-Native audiences.
The LaPoes also note that tribal storytelling—rich in detail and language—informs Native American journalism, which differs from mainstream journalism in important ways, including notions of privacy. They quote Tom Arviso, publisher of the Navajo Times, who explains that “there are certain things that you don’t let the public know. Even our own ceremonies . . . . There are still things we hold sacred.” The authors make clear that recognizing and respecting such traditions is one way the mainstream media can cover Native stories sensitively and without cultural clichés. “American Indians are nurses, teachers, professional sports athletes, lawyers, writers, journalists, rodeo stars, bodybuilders, bloggers, and the list goes on and on; however, mainstream media only report on American Indian communities, if they report at all, during specific circumstances,” the LaPoes write. “Having a story running consistently on Thanksgiving from one Native’s point of view does not equal full coverage of a community.”
The book is structured around research questions that focus on the norms and routines of Native media organizations and the ways digital media is changing their reporting. The authors examine for-profit Native media such as the Navajo Times in Arizona and nonprofit media such as the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation in Alaska, which produces National Native News. Victoria LaPoe also conducted interviews with a number of leading Native journalists and producers, including Mark Trahant, now editor of Indian Country Today; Bryan Pollard, then editor of the Cherokee Phoenix; Peggy Berryhill, general manager of KGUA, a community radio station in Northern California; and Chase Iron Eyes, creator of LastRealIndians.com. These voices—and others—provide views on Native issues not usually heard in the mainstream media.
A lot of what the authors find is not surprising. They note, for example, that there are too few Native journalists at major media organizations and few incentives for Native students to become journalists. The authors also point out that what little coverage the Indian community receives is largely conflict-driven and rarely reported with informed historical or cultural context. As Native journalists point out, Native voices are sometimes missing even in these reports. Digital media can help overcome this problem, giving Native journalists a way to expand the reach of their publications and educate non-Native journalists and their readers about Native cultures and traditions.
The historical aspects of the book provide background on the growth and development of Native media, which began with the Cherokee Phoenix in 1828. The research would be stronger, however, if the authors had built on the work of James and Sharon Murphy, whose 1981 book, Let My People Know, remains a useful history of Native American journalism. Sharon Murphy’s article, “Journalism in Indian County: Story Telling That Makes Sense,” published in 2010, would have also improved the LaPoe’s research. Similarly, their discussions Native representations would be more illuminating with references to Robert Berkhofer’s The White Man’s Indian (1978), Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres’s News for All the People (2011), and C. Richard King’s Redskins: Insult and Brand (2016). Despite such oversights, the LaPoes are on target when they highlight the systemic neglect of Indians and Indian issues in the mainstream press and the troubled history of casual and racist stereotyping that has been inflicted upon Native Americans from the press and public for the entire course of American history.
The book, part of the Michigan State University Press’s American Indian Studies series, will be a useful starting point for students and scholars seeking information and insights into contemporary Native media. It is also a reminder of the many unsung Native journalists and producers who work every day to enlighten and inform Native communities and fight for more sensitive and balanced representations of American Indians and their concerns. As the LaPoes demonstrate, Native American journalism is a challenging but worthy endeavor that deserves greater attention and respect within the academy, the American media and the larger society.