FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN NEWS BUREAU OPENS
The "Lakota Times" has opened the first full-time Native American newspaper
bureau covering Washington, D.C., at the Freedom Forum.
The Freedom Forum, the nation's largest media-related foundation, launched the
"Lakota Times" of Rapid City, S.D., as the first national Native American
weekly newspaper in October with a $100,000 loan.
"Lakota Times" publisher Tim Giago said at the time that one of his first
priorities would be to establish a news bureau in Washington. He called
coverage of Native Americans from the nation's capital "inadequate,
stereotypical, and erroneous."
"In order for us to be a national newspaper, we have to cover this area,"
Giago said. "Everything that happens on our reservations usually has a start
here in Washington."
Washington correspondent and bureau chief is Bunty Anquoe, the first reporter
based in Washington for a native American newspaper. She is a native of the
Onondaga Reservation in upstate New York and a University of Oklahoma
graduate.
"The Freedom Forum has been a leader in advancing improved news coverage of
minorities. We consider it a privilege to help establish something that has
been needed for so long - a Washington news bureau for a newspaper owned by
and published for Native Americans," said Charles L. Overby, president of the
Freedom Forum.
The bureau is based at the Freedom Forum World Center, 1101 Wilson Boulevard,
Arlington, Va., 22209. The bureau phone number is (703)-284-2877.
Giago started the "Lakota Times" about 12 years ago at the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, where he grew up. The paper has grown into an
award-winning weekly that now seeks to provide nationwide coverage of news
affecting and concerning Native Americans.
The Freedom Forum of Arlington, Va., is a financially independent,
nonpartisan, international organization, dedicated to free press, free speech,
and free spirit for all people. It supports it priorities through programs,
publications, and projects that promote the understanding and exercise of
freedoms and values embodied in the First Amendment.
The Freedom Forum's main operating program is The Freedom Forum Media Studies
Center, at Columbia University in New York, the nation's first institute for
the advanced study of mass communication and technological change.
_________________________________________________________
Alison Lee Wangsness, Asst PROFS Administrator
Information Systems, Georgetown University
Washington, D.C. 20057 / BITNET:wangsnea@guvm
VOICE:202-687-4960 / FAX:202-687-1505