A view from the Needles in the Black Hills of South Dakota Photo by Kenneth Cole Schneider
We are not beholden to any government
By Native Sun News Today Editorial Board
nsweekly.com Native Sun News Today is not a legal newspaper for any city, state, tribe or county government, nor does it want to be. We are however a legal paper as recognized by the United States Postal Service and the South Dakota Newspaper Association. If we publish a legal notice that is required for the city, state, county or tribe it has all of the weight of a legal publication. We can publish legal name change notices, land sales, probate court and other legal court proceedings, state, city and county legal announcements and notices. That is our job. But our reporters have the freedom to write critical articles of any tribe, state agency, federal agency, or county agency or to be critical of any school district without fear of having their advertising pulled from our paper for being critical of them. Publishers that claim to be the legal newspaper for any of the above named entities seem to believe that because they are a legal paper for any of the entities people will be obligated to read their newspaper. But if the content of the paper is totally lacking in substance or clarity, people will read the newspaper with the more interesting news content. The readers of Indian newspapers are not dummies. There are things that happen on a daily basis within the governments and agencies, including tribal governments that are wrong and sometimes even criminal. As a newspaper that enjoys total freedom to report the news as we see it happening we are not beholden to these governments for our income. Our main source of income is from private enterprise and not from any governmental entity. The City of Rapid City and the Pennington County Commissioners have chosen three newspapers as their so-called legal newspapers. They have not and probably will not ever choose an American Indian newspaper as their legal paper simply because they believe Indians are not a part of their government or community. The State of South Dakota can be included in this exclusive club because from the day it was organized as a State American Indians were never included as equal citizens. We suppose it all depends upon leadership. For a short time under Mayor Sam Kooiker we published a small portion of the Rapid City Council Minutes and our Lakota readers were amazed. They said, “at last.” But when the new mayor Steve Allender came in we were the first item cut from the city budget. We endorsed his opponent. Sweet revenge. Although we were here first we will always be counted as last by Rapid City, Pennington County, and the State of South Dakota. However, we will continue to be the voice of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people as long as we are able to serve them. They prefer that we are not beholden to the State, City, County, or Federal or Tribal governments. Thank God for Freedom of the Press.
For more news and opinion visit the Native Sun News Today website: We are not beholden to any government (Contact the NSN Editorial Board at editor@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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