Native Americans as powerful candidates

 Journalist Mark Trahant will talk about the
power of Native Americans as candidates

Nationally known journalist Mark Trahant will talk about the power of Native Americans as candidates for political office in the upcoming national election at this year’s Duluth Media Summit.

Trahant will speak Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the American Indian Center, Trepanier Hall, 202 W 2nd St, Duluth, MN 55802. On 


Wednesday, Oct. 19, Trahant will visit with students in the University of Minnesota of Duluth’s Journalism and American Indian Studies programs.

                “While the spotlight shines on the race for the

White House, there’s another story that needs telling, and that’s how more Native Americans are running for and winning offices than ever before across the country,” Trahant wrote. “From Alaska to Minnesota and North Carolina, there are candidates whose very presence is reshaping politics.”

Trahant is an independent journalist and a faculty member at the University of North Dakota as the Charles R. Johnson Endowed Professor of Journalism. (The same great university that the Hillsider editor attended.)

Trahant reports and comments on events and trends on his blog at TrahantReports.com and on Facebook, Twitter(@TrahantReports), and other social media. He does a weekly audio commentary for Native Voice One. And, every day for nearly a decade, Trahant has written a 140-character rhyme based on a daily news story (@newsrimes4lines).

He’s been a reporter for PBS’ Frontline series. The Frontline piece, “The Silence,” was about sexual abuse by priests in an Alaska native village. He also has been editor-in-residence at the University of Idaho in the spring of 2011 and again in 2012. There, he taught courses on social media, the American West and editorial writing. In 2009 and 2010 Trahant was a Kaiser Media Fellow writing about health care reform focused on programs the government already operates, such as the Indian Health Service. Trahant has also been the Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Trahant is the former editor of the editorial page for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where he chaired the daily editorial board, directed a staff of writers, editors and a cartoonist. He has also worked at The Seattle Times, Arizona Republic, The Salt Lake Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, the Navajo Times, Navajo Nation Today and the Sho-Ban News.

Trahant is a citizen of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and former president of the Native American Journalists Association.

The Duluth Media Summit is an annual event that invites the nation’s top media professionals to Duluth to talk to with working journalists and the public about issues relevant to the changing nature of journalism. Previous speakers have been John Hughes, then-president of the National Press Club; Jeremy Iggers, founder of the Twin Cities Daily Planet; and Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab, an incubator for entrepreneurs and news innovators.

Trahant’s visit is being co-sponsored by the One River, Many Stories project, the American Indian Center, and UMD’s American Indian Studies Department and the Department of Communication.

www.onerivermn.com


“One River, Many Stories” is a journalism, media and storytelling project and resource hub for journalists, educators, and citizens to foster deeper conversations about our community. This University of Minnesota Duluth Journalism program project is funded in part by the Knight Foundation Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.

Native Pride marches up the Hillside to dispell myth of Columbus












Captions: Left to right are: Jon Perrin, Savannah Howes, Ronny Powell, Alesia Buffalo, and Courtney Cochran.


Jackie Fairbanks, a 6th grader at Woodland Middle School walked beside her father, John Fairbanks. She said, “We aren’t really celebrating the truth.” She thinks Native Americans are treated differently when the truth is not taught.




Last month on Columbus Day while the city hall, and downtown Post Office stood quiet because employees had this legal holiday off, a chant could be heard: “Say it loud! Say it proud! Native pride marching up the Hillside!” The chant was shouted by Native American youth.

It was Mon., Oct. 9. A group of teenagers named Native Youth Agenda led over 144 people on a one-mile march from the library on the corner of Fifth Avenue West and Superior Street to the Washington Center on North Lake Street and Third Street West.

Jackie Fairbanks, a 6th grader at Woodland Middle School walked beside her father, John Fairbanks. She held a sign that said, “Myths of Columbus: He found and discovered America; He is a national hero.” She said she was walking because it was good for native people to get together, “We aren’t really celebrating the truth,” she said of Columbus Day. “We are sort of living a lie.” She also said that when most of America celebrates Columbus Day, “They treat us differently.”

Jon Perrin, a 9th grader at Denfeld, High School said, “We just believe that Columbus did not actually find land. He traveled and discovered (America) and killed natives.

Dana Megenupch said she participated in the march “…to support my people.” She went on to say, “(They) tired to banish us. We need to make people realize that we were here first and to stop trying to demolish us. It will never be done.” As the crowd walked by the Washington Center on Fourth Street she called out to some teenage boys across the street telling them they ought to join their people.

Once inside the Washington Center a large crowd gathered to prepare for a meal. Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson spoke to the group. “This is the last time the City of Duluth will allow a day off for Columbus Day,” he said. Bergson said he was raised to celebrate Columbus Day, but while in college he learned the truth about Columbus. We raised our two sons to know the truth he said, “The man was a slave trader and a butcher, and we can not honor murderers.” He said the whites and black in the room were there to show their support.

After Bergson’s speech the crowd listened to the Lake Vermillion Singers. Bill Howes, a leader with Native Youth Agenda said it was an honor song for “Every single person who lost their life fighting for something they believed in.”
Before the meal, Virgil Sohm said a prayer in his native tongue. The youth served the elders before they themselves could eat.

Bill Howes was one of the adults working with the youth. His wife Edye Howes is the coordinator of Native Youth Agenda and they have a daughter, Savannah, age 13, in Native Youth Agenda. (They also have a daughter Che, age 5) He said the young people choose this issue a couple of years ago and the youth had set a goal of having 250 people show up. By time the event ended with a meal there were 250 people.

Howes said, “It is about the youth standing up and doing something that they thought was important.” He went on to say, “The goal is more than just the march. It is to keep spreading the message. Ultimately, it is important to learn the truth. There are all kinds of events we need to look at from multiple perspectives, not just one person who gets to write the textbook
Rachel Kincaid works with youth every day. She is the executive director of Lifehouse. She said it was good for the youth to learn how to lead an event like they did for the Myth of Columbus Day. “It allows them to know their own strength and power to change things,” she said.