Staff
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation)
Founder-Director Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance/Online publisher Buffalo’s Fire
jodi@imfreedomalliance.org
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder-director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization located in Bismarck, N.D. The IMFA publishes on Buffalo’s Fire, an independent digital news site.
Jodi is an award-winning journalist and opinion writer whose recognition and awards come from mainstream, military, and university journalism programs and the Indigenous Journalists Association. In 2023, the IJA awarded her the inaugural Tim Giago Free Press Award. In 2021, she was selected as a Bush Fellow for leadership, recognizing her decades-long commitment to journalism and her vision for well-informed Indigenous communities. In 2021, Jodi was also named a John S. Knight Community Impact Fellow of Stanford University.
After reporting for daily newspapers for nearly 15 years, she returned to her ancestral homelands of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. She served as the executive director of the Fort Berthold Communications Director — overseeing the Three Affiliated Tribes newspaper and radio station – before starting a non-profit dedicated to Freedom of Information and open records. She also enjoyed being a Native American Studies instructor at the Nueta, Hidatsa and Sahnish College in New Town, N.D. where she taught courses on the media and tribal governance.
Prior to that, she worked more than a decade as a national reporter on American Indian issues for Lee Newspapers, based at the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska and the Missoulian in Montana. Jodi has been awarded several fellowships, including an MIT Knight Science Journalism fellowship in 2021-2021. She was named a Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard University in 2003.
She has also received national awards and honors for news and opinion writing, including the Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest, Native American Journalists Association, Montana Newspaper Association, Columbia University School of Journalism and the University of Nebraska. She was also awarded the Paul D. Savanuck Military Journalist of the Year in 1999. Her writing is featured in “The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity,” published by Columbia University Press.
Jodi is Mandan-Hidatsa and Lakota. She lives in Bismarck, N.D. with her husband and daughter.
Alicia Hegland-Thorpe (Mni Wakan Oyate, Dakota)
Bismarck Documenters Site Manager, At-large Reporter
alicia@imfreedomalliance.org
Alicia Hegland-Thorpe, a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation (Mni Wakan Oyate), is the newly hired Documenters Program Manager for Buffalo’s Fire. She brings community-organizing skills to her new role primarily focusing on civic engagement. Buffalo’s Fire is the first Indigenous-led and first rural cohort of the national Documenter’s Network. She will be working with citizen journalists to cover local meetings. In addition, Hegland-Thorpe will put her writing, reporting and podcasting skills to work in contributing content to buffalosfire.com. She began her journalism career in broadcasting and mass media. Her first job was as an on-air radio personality in her senior year of high school. After attending the University of North Dakota and Minot State University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and Communications. She became the first Indigenous television news anchor for the 6-and -10 p.m. newscasts in Minot. Her career also includes producing voice-overs for commercials, photography, reporting, and writing digital content. For a brief time, she was co-host and assistant producer for the statewide radio show ‘Mainstreet’, on Prairie Public, using her platform to bring Indigenous issues and voices to the forefront of North Dakota. Alicia then worked as a consultant and freelance journalist, writing for Arts Midwest and North Dakota Council of the Arts. She’s also hosted a few podcasts. In her spare time, she’s a music performer. She can most likely be found helping to coordinate or organize grassroots efforts in her community, focusing on indigenous-led initiatives, or writing about them. She serves on several boards and councils focusing on education, art or civic engagement. She is the 2024 Indigenous Journalists Association winner for first and third place stories in feature writing.
Adrianna Adame (Chippewa/Cree)
Indigenous Democracy News Beat/Report for America Corps Member
adrianna@imfreedomalliance.org
Adrianna Adame — enrolled Chippewa Cree, Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana — is a Report for America corps member covering Indigenous Democracy across the state of North Dakota for Buffalo’s
Fire. While in Bismarck, she will be reporting on voting rights, tribal council, school board and rural co-op meetings, tribal college stories and K-12 education. Prior to joining Buffalo’s Fire, Adame graduated with her Masters in Journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. School of Public Communication, where she was a Newhouse Minority Fellow and intern at Syracuse.com.
In Syracuse, she reported on stories from underrepresented communities in Central New York, as well as arts and entertainment. Adame has also contributed and written for local and editorial sites such as
POPSUGAR, the Stand, NPR Next Gen and Flique Editorial. Throughout her
undergrad years, she also held the positions of Managing and News Editor for The Cougar Chronicle, California State San Marcos’ student newspaper, where she lead, edited, reported and most importantly, first became passionate about journalism. Since her days at The Cougar Chronicle, she’s has been determined to work in local journalism, primarily focusing on diverse communities. Adame is Mexican American and a proud member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana.
Grace Fiori is a Report for America Corps Member covering environmental and agricultural issues along the Missouri River for Buffalo’s Fire. While in North Dakota, she will be exploring how agricultural, industrial, and conservation practices impact tribal communities in the Missouri River basin.
Prior to joining Buffalo’s Fire, Fiori reported on the intersection of local economies and agricultural systems, first as an intern and then as a contributing reporter for the Harvard Press in Harvard, Massachusetts. She is a 2024 University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and sustainable agriculture, having served as the managing editor of the student newspaper, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
Castle Fox serves as the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance administrative assistant. She was raised in Twin Buttes, N.D., located on the Fort Berthold Reservation. She belongs to the Knife Clan and is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. For the last six years she’s worked as a customer service representative for a number of local businesses in the Bismarck-Mandan area.
Castle is looking forward to working with the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance and Buffalo’s Fire, the online news publication of IMFA, to be part of an uprising of independent Indigenous media for Indian Country.
She plans to remain with IMFA while currently furthering her education in business administration at the United Tribes Technical College. She’s devoted to her local community and hopes to help improve it for the future generations. She’s a lifelong resident of North Dakota. Since relocating from the Fort Berthold Reservation, she now lives in Bismarck, N.D. with her five family members. She’s caring and quick to help friends and relatives.