Tim Giago, the greatest newspaper man ever in my opinion, wrote last month about how Indian journalists of bygone years needed a shout-out. He could not mention himself, but I can.

I first met Tim when he was at Pine Ridge Village about 30 years ago. His newspaper was called Lakota Times. After he took it national in 1992, he renamed it Indian Country Today. He had founded it in 1980 and ran it for 18 years, finally selling it and retiring for the first time in 1998.

Two years later he founded the Lakota Journal and ran it for several years, retiring again in 2004. But his retirements are funny. He still keeps putting out his column, syndicated often seen on the Huffingtonpost. He has been doing the column for 35 years, the world’s oldest and best Indian newspaper column.

Pine Ridge was still a mess when I met him there. Tim’s office still had bullet holes in the door and the walls where some low life had tried to shoot him and his staff. He and his staff were brave people. They were firebombed and had their windows shot out three different times. They had constant death threats.

He had one Jewish lady from New York City working for him. I asked him, “What tribe is she.” He laughed and said, “She is Siouxish.” The boy has a sense of humor.