Buffalo’s Fire begins recruitment of 20 community notetakers

“I believe communication for the community is key,” said High Elk. “A notetaker can be that person who goes to meetings and gives a better schedule at three different sites. A notetaker could be for the school board, for parent-teacher meetings that become very important,” for the public to know about. “I think notetakers can be a huge asset to keep the communication going.”

“I feel like this could be a really good outlet for me to be able to pay it forward to the community to the best of my ability.”

Annie High Elk, community engagement coordinator for the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

This initiative is inspired by Documenters.org, a network of newsrooms and community organizations committed to participatory civic media. Currently, Documenters are located in nine cities across the country, including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Fresno, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Philadelphia.

Buffalo’s Fire has had previous discussions with national organizers to include Bismarck as a rural pilot project.

For now, the plan is to select notetakers from the community to attend an array of meetings, including the county commission, parks and recreation, agricultural, school board, and other public meetings that would be of interest to North Dakota’s Indigenous communities.

Community notetakers will keep a checklist of details such as attendance, names of presenters, including titles and affiliations, as well as community concerns and a summary of the event.

High Elk, the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance’s community engagement coordinator, will be managing the notetakers.

She will help match a community member to a specific meeting. Buffalo’s Fire editors will then copyedit and fact-check all notes for clarity. The staff at Buffalo’s Fire will be on the lookout for stories that may arise from the meeting notes.

High Elk has decades of experience in teamwork and organization. She recently returned to North Dakota after spending 30 years in Seattle, where she worked as a wedding planner and with individuals with disabilities. She now leads a Circle Group for female Indigenous students at Bismarck High School and is also currently working as a retail manager – High Elk, a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said it’s important to keep Indigenous communities informed.

One of IMFA’s goals is to make information accessible to readers. Buffalo’s Fire’s weekly newsletter, which comes out on Wednesdays, will include information from the meetings covered.

“This newsletter gets me to read things that are important to me,” said High Elk. “There’s going to be fun stuff in it, they’ll be the serious stuff in it, but it’s all so informational that I think that it’s just an important asset for anybody who wants to be in the know.”

Readers will also soon be able to access the full notes from the meeting on at buffalosfire.com.

Community members who have the time and dedication to attend meetings and who want to enhance their research, organization, and note-taking skills are encouraged to apply.

For High Elk, this opportunity is a way for her to give back to North Dakota’s Indigenous communities, “I feel like this could be a really good outlet for me to be able to pay it forward to the community to the best of my ability,” she said.

For more information about becoming a community notetaker for Buffalo’s Fire, contact jodi@imfreedomalliance.org or annie@imfreedomalliance.org.