The front page of the May 21, 1828, edition of The Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published by a tribal nation and the first published in a tribal language. Image by The Cherokee Phoenix
The press isn't free when it's funded by tribal government, argues Steve Russell, a member of the Cherokee Nation. He attended the recent Native American Journalists Association conference, where Native media organizations were honored for their independence:
Reporters for tribal media often have to risk their jobs to bring home the bacon for the people they serve. You can’t have a functioning democracy when people are not allowed to know what is going on. Tribal governments that threaten cutting off funds to tribal papers or access to reporters need to be called out for it. Freedom of the press is lacking in much of Indian country, but the colonial governments are in no position to tutor us when reporters in this hemisphere risk not just their jobs but their freedom and in some cases their lives. Kudos to NAJA for calling out the bad actors and rewarding reporters with the courage to stand up to them. Freedom of information can only make our governments better. Those tribal nations with free press problems are unlikely to find solutions by looking to the U.S. or Mexico or Brazil. Better to look at the Cherokee, Osage, Muscogee (Creek) and Navajo responses for a baseline and try to do better. I do not deny freedom of the press is a real problem for Indian country. But I would love it if Reporters Without Borders would include tribal nations in their world rankings and subject us to the same scrutiny by the same standards. I’m not convinced we would fare worse than the colonial governments that claim to be our role models.Read More:
Steve Russell: A Free Press Needs More Than the First Amendment (Indian Country Today 10/12)
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