Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Trespass: Three Affiliated Tribe’s sued for Missouri River water sales

The North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance will be hosting its second annual Native American Heritage Month Celebration at the state capital in Bismarck from Nov. 15-16. (Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance)

We have two videos posted on the Section 17 lawsuit, a long and this one. The one here is about 3 minutes. 

Get the news analysis of the Fettig lawsuit here on Buffalo’s Fire. 

Here’s some background on our video news field reporter and cameraman:

Charles Kennedye Charles “Boots” Kennedye is an Oklahoma City based filmmaker and member of the Kiowa Tribe. He spent 10 years serving as documentary producer for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority before joining the Vision Maker Media team in 2014. He has won many awards for his work, including eight Heartland Emmy Awards and five National Educational Television Association Awards including (2008) “Best-of-the-Best.” Kennedye has been awarded the CPB/PBS Producers Workshop scholarship and the CPB INPUT Producer Fellowship. His contributions are seen across many of OETA’s major projects including, a 100-part Oklahoma story collective, Centennial Stories (2007), Oklahoma WWII Stories (2008), The People, Oklahoma Tribes (2009), and The State of Sequoyah (2011). Later he partnered with Rocky Mountain PBS to film and produce Urban Rez (2012) and again with Red Power Energy (2015). Other collaborations include: Words from A Bear (2017) (Director Photography), a VMM co-production with American Masters, Redemption Story (2017) (Producer), chosen for the PBS Online Film Festival, and And We Walked, the Ponca Long Walk (2018) (Photographer), a co-production with Nebraska Educational Television. Kennedyes’ commitment to Indigenous Storytelling led him to Vision Maker Media where he served as Producer for Growing Native; a four part documentary series that showcases contemporary Native American stories while celebrating traditional pathways. In 2018, Kennedye began production on his first independent documentary, Valley of Thundering Water, which explores the status of wild horse populations on tribal lands.

If you are interested in training for the Buffalo’s Fire video news team, call Jodi Rave at 701-301-1296. If you have a news tip, you can call the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance at the same number or send an email to jodi.rave@buffalosfire.com.

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.