Native peoples must be part of an emergent media collective power

This piece was first printed Nov. 30, 2023 in The Objective as part of the Civic Media Series: A project of The Objective and Free Press, with members of the Future of Local News Collective. You can read the series introduction here or read more pieces from the series here.

Indigenous people are often called the invisible minority. Centuries of genocide have silenced generations of voices.

At the same time, the mainstream press has never been fully present to consistently, accurately, or fearlessly tell Indigenous stories. Within the decade, ample research on Indigenous media, financing, and experimental discoveries should lead to a more robust independent American Indian media ecosystem.

As one of the most overlooked U.S. constituencies, Native peoples must be part of an emergent media collective power. In a multi-stakeholder event held this April that included North American Indigenous journalists, the United Nations identified at least a half dozen actions needed to create “an enabling environment for free and independent Indigenous community media.”

The Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance and its digital news site Buffalo’s Fire is an answer to the call for a free and independent Indigenous media. Buffalo’s Fire is the first nonprofit news organization in North Dakota. IMFA is also one of the few Native-led, Native-founded nonprofit news organizations in the United States. Through local reporting, we’re telling stories the mainstream media has continually failed to write about.

Mainstream press researchers have a plethora of media archives to sift through to complete their work, and they must undertake that work with American Indian communities to help define how a healthy media ecosystem and a healthy democracy go hand in hand.

Even though American Indians are the largest real estate owners in the United States, this population continually ranks among the lowest rungs of social, economic, and health indicators. An independent Indigenous media could benefit from research, data, and statistics to make life-informed decisions regarding education, innovation, creativity, personal growth, safety, health, cultural identity, and economic development.

Despite centuries of land dispossession, Native nations and individuals still retain title to 56 million acres of resource-rich reservation land, which is about 2% of our original ancestral lands across the country.

In recognition of those land rights, the U.S. government recognized American Indians’ right to self-governance within our traditional territories. Tribes have the ability to create tribe-specific constitutions as part of their governance structures. But the federal government also introduced foreign models of government to tribes.

Whether intentional, or not, the new models quashed the emergence of a viable Fourth Estate for most of Indian Country. Today, only five of 574 federally recognized tribes have explicit free press protections enshrined within their constitutions, according to the Indigenous Journalists Association. But a free press must rise among Native nations. As the rest of the country addresses the ongoing structural crisis of U.S. media, we should all be asking the same question: What is democracy without journalism?

A movement is afoot to address the breakdown and shake up of corporate media and local journalism. Today disinformation, public distrust, barriers to freedom of information, and social alienation permeate American society. Now, however, a cadre of civic information practitioners remind us it’s time to walk boldly into the future.

We have a chance to make significant changes as mainstream media downsizes and a new information ecosystem rises.

The Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance and Buffalo’s Fire is at the forefront of a new emerging media ecosystem that includes collaboration, partnerships, and knowledge-sharing with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous media organizations, a key required action put forward by the United Nations to create an “enabling environment for free and independent Indigenous community media.”

The IMFA has collaborated with national and Native news organizations on reporting projects and media training sessions. We’ve been part of the Report for America cohort and hired journalists to work in our newsroom. We’ve spoken on the need for press freedom at multiple venues across the country, most recently at the National Association of Science Writers and Investigative Reporters and Editors. We’ve also been a part of a local news community impact fellowship at Stanford.

Most importantly, we’re reporting on local news important in our backyard, including education and civil rights issues, as well as tribal government accountability stories.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and multi-stakeholders listed the following key themes and actions needed to bolster independent Indigenous media in the United States and abroad: the need for supportive media policies; financial viability and access to resources; promotion of human rights; increased use of digital platforms; reclaiming the narrative on Indigenous issues; preparedness for emergency and crisis situations; and finally, increase collaboration, partnerships, and knowledge sharing among Indigenous media.

In the United States, media mobilization efforts should include tribal governments. These sovereign entities play a key role in freeing tribe-controlled media. The vast majority of newspapers serving American Indian communities are controlled by tribal governments, governments that do not have freedom of information laws, unlike all states and the federal government.

While many tribes say press freedom is protected by the Indian Civil Rights Act, those civil rights violations often end up largely unenforceable in federal court.

So, during this time of a new media emergence, American Indians need a seat at the table to forge a new path in building and supporting independent Indigenous media practitioners. It will be an experiment, and that’s OK — experiments tend to lead to great discoveries.

While American media practitioners grapple with the ongoing news crisis, the conversation is an open window that requires the inclusion of American Indians, the citizens of federally recognized tribes who have been victimized by historical governmental policies that have disenfranchised millions of Indigenous people throughout North America.

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance. She is also the 2023 Native American Journalists Association inaugural recipient of the Tim Giago Free Press Award.