Ernestine Chasing Hawk. Photo from Native Sun News
Chasing Hawk named Editor of Native Sun News
By Native Sun News Staff RAPID CITY – Ernestine Chasing Hawk will be promoted to editor of the Native Sun News effective April 1. She is a longtime employee of Publisher Tim Giago and got her start with him at the Lakota Journal. Giago said, “Ernie, as she is known by all of us at NSN, is one of the best Native American journalists in Indian Country. Like many Lakota women she has had her share of hardships and ups and downs, but all of these trials have not only made her a better writer, but a better person.” “I can think of no one more qualified to take the Native Sun News into the new world of technology than Ernie. She brings passion, persistence and a keen business sense to her new position as editor and for those who think print journalism is dead, explain to Ernie why Native Sun News continues grow in circulation, but notwithstanding that, Ernie will embrace the new technology that will ensure that Native Sun News not only continues to grow in print circulation, but will also embrace the new digital technology,” Giago said. Ernestine Aurelia Brown-Chasing Hawk, Winnebago/Minnecoujou/Hunkpapa, is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She was born on November 23, 1957 at the Pine Ridge Hospital in Pine Ridge, S.D. during the time her grandmother, Aurelia Dupree-Reddest taught English at Pine Ridge High School. As a young child she lived with her parents Andrea Rave and Sylvan Charles Brown in Oakland, California and Chicago, Illinois where they were sent during the relocation era. As a young girl she also spent time on the Standing Rock Reservation with her great-grandmother Cecelia One Bull, daughter of Henry Oscar One Bull, nephew of Sitting Bull. She is also the granddaughter of Dave Bald Eagle and June Brown-Chasing Hawk. Chasing Hawk attended Cheyenne-Eagle Butte School for most of her primary and secondary education, however spent one year at Northfield Mt. Herman Preparatory School in Northfield, Mass and participated in the ABC program out of Dartmouth College. She also attended Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia, as a student of Dr. Kenneth Satinsky’s college accelerated program. Ernestine married Norman Blue Arm in 1976, a descendant of Blue Arm who was a Wounded Knee Massacre survivor. She has seven children, Tiba, Camilla, Valance, Caleb, Chantelle, Tanille and Katurah. She was also married to Robert Chasing Hawk, who currently serves on the CRST Tribal Council. She is a graduate of Si Tanka/ Huron University, in Huron, SD where she earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration. She also earned an Associate of Science Degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) at Cheyenne River Community College. She began her journalism career as a writer for the Si Tanka Journal in 2000 and credits Pastor Pauline Webb as one of her mentors. He has worked in the journalism field for the past 15 years as a staff writer, editor and managing editor. She worked at Si Tanka Journal, Lakota Journal, Dakota Journal, and Lakota Times and currently works as a Staff Writer at Native Sun News. While completing one of her first assignments at the Lakota Journal, a trip to the Central States Fair in Rapid City, Chasing Hawk took an action photo of some Lakota children on a slide and this photo, a first for her, took first place in the South Dakota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest. Excited about the new challenge she is about to undertake, Chasing Hawk said, “Tim Giago is my muse and mentor. When he hired me at Lakota Journal as a staff writer, he made me believe in myself as a writer and helped me reach heights I never thought possible.” Copyright permission Native Sun News
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