Native American Newspaper
Career Conference Summary

By Ivana Rabago, Northeast High School; Cristina Vance, Lincoln High School; and Angela Howe, Little Big Horn College

Many Native Americans may not consider journalism as a career. But the faculty and staff of the Native American Newspaper Career Conference believes that it is key for Native Americans to have a voice on the many different issues affecting them.

The third annual conference, which was sponsored by The Freedom Forum, the South Dakota Newspaper Association and the journalism programs at South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota, brought Native American journalists, students and other members of the media to Crazy Horse Memorial April 23-25. Students attended lectures and panel discussions involving working media professionals and also wrote stories and took photos.

Ray Chavez, chair of the journalism department at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, said he hopes the conference will inspire a larger number of Native Americans to consider journalism as a career.

Native Americans are currently underrepresented in the news media, Reginald Stuart, corporate recruiter for Knight Ridder, said. He likes the idea of the conference because he thinks it is good for Native Americans to work in the press both off and on the reservation.

"Native Americans were here first and they are right to re-stake their claim," he said.

This year the Native American Newspaper Career Conference attracted 80 students and 20 advisors from 17 high schools, and five different states including Nebraska, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Students from Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont., were unable to attend due to the death of Lem Price, a young photojournalist who graduated from there. Three mentors attended his memorial service April 22.

Planning for the conference takes almost a year. SDNA General Manager Dave Bordewyk said differences between this year's conference and previous years is that the Communication and Orientation Center at Crazy Horse is now available for use. There are also eight to nine new faculty members. All together 19 faculty worked at this year's conference.

There are many mentors who donate their time to the conference because they feel it is important to inspire young Native American students to become journalists.
Chavez, who has worked with the project for the past two years, says he loves working with the youth. He does not get paid, but is happy to donate his time.

"The quality of students (at the conference) gets better and better," he said. "We are getting more students that are interested in journalism."

Ruth Ziolkowski, president and C.E.O of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, hosts the conference each year.
Ruth believes in Native Americans, especially young people and thinks they can achieve any goal. She said that is why she thinks it is important for the NANCC to be held at the mountain. Before the closing of a press conference in which she participated, Ruth said, "I hope the conference itself interests you in journalism."

A group of media professionals originally organized the conference because they felt Native Americans were underrepresented in the media. One of the original conference founders, Jack Marsh, director of The Freedom Forum Neuharth Center at the University of South Dakota, said there is a large population of Native Americans in the state of South Dakota whose voices are not being heard. He said he hopes to get high school students involved in journalism by having them attend the conference.

Marvin Dawes, advisor and student at Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Mont., has attended the conference each year. He enjoys bringing students. He says it is a lot of fun and the students learn a lot about journalism and go home to tell others.
Dawes said he also gets a lot out the conference himself, because it provides an opportunity to learn about journalism. For that reason, he would like to see more students attend.
One of the students attending, Mae Lawrence from Timber Lake High School, said, "I came here hoping to have experience and get inspired for journalism and that is exactly what I got out of it".

Another student, Linn White Shield from Little Big Horn College, says she hoped the conference would challenge her and help her gain more information about journalism. Having joined a photography group, she said she was having a lot of fun and wished she could take home all the pictures she took.
"I think that Native Americans should aggressively pursue educational goals," said Lael Spang, who currently attends Little Big Horn College. "I wanted to find out what kind of approach a writer would use to write a story for a newspaper and meet other potential writers and journalists from other tribes. I was hoping to acquire a voice for Native American views."

Spang said he learned a lot from this conference.
"I found out that there are a lot of opportunities for Native American writers and journalists on and off the reservation."