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Mark Trahant
ICT
A moment of reflection. Next week I am moving out of the newsroom for a few months and finishing up my next book. Today I wrap up on set as a back-up anchor, back-up show producer, economics correspondent, and I have been carrying out a general role doing whatever is required.
This enterprise – really, three ventures, ICT, the ICT Newscast, and the company, IndiJ Public Media – have come so far in our short history.
Indian Country Today had gone out of business and we all knew how important the “newspaper” was. We could not let it die.
We started small. I keep thinking of the days when there were three of us typing as fast as Kermit the Frog in order to keep up with the news. Now there are more reporters, producers and yet not nearly enough to keep up with the volume of what’s required. The challenge is still the promise coined by Elias Boudinot in 1824, “a vehicle of Indian intelligence.” Everyday we get to think about what’s going on in our communities, writing and producing stories about those occurrences, and hopefully adding context along the way.
Now, of course, the challenges of this news organization are about growth and sustainability. How do we transform from a start-up to an institution? One that’s built to last. This is essential because the mission remains more important than ever. (And thanks to all of you who support our work with donations large and small.)
Something to think about when I come back: Next year will be my 50th year in this business. I think about that career arc and how lucky I have been. (That’s a project for another day, chronicling my own history as a journalist.) There is a lot there, extraordinary access to so much of the history that unfolded over those years.
And perhaps my most lasting contribution has been to mentor other journalists. I had such a mentorship from Forrest Gerard. We’d talk often and he would tell me about his mentor and stressed that I had an obligation to do the same. Then “obligation” is the wrong word because it’s been so much fun to watch other people’s careers blossom. I am grateful.
I am also excited for my next project, MS. CHIEF. It’s a history of Native women as leaders. I was so lucky to know so many of them from Helen Peterson (who was a family friend) to Lucy Covington. Both women played a key role in ending the destructive policy of termination.
A couple of years ago I wrote about the election at Colville that effectively put to rest the termination policy. Of course it was a long read in ICT. But it was also picked up by The Associated Press and carried by news organizations across the country – all 2,200 plus words. Remarkable.
The title, of course, comes from a Wilma Mankiller story. (One I heard her tell often.) When she was principal chief of the Cherokees she was asked if her title should be amended, as in chief-ess or something even more nonsensical. Mankiller responded, “no, call me Ms. Chief because that’s what I am going to do.”
Further reading:
— The election that ended termination
— A tribute to those who always imagined a women in Congress
I love journalism for its immediacy. “What’s news?” is always a question in my mind. But we also need a canon of stories, ones that are told over and over again. Our history of leadership is a critical narrative – and the yet role of Indigenous women is too often missing from that discourse. That cannot be. We all owe a debt because of what’s come before us.
Signing off for now.
Mark Trahant, Shoshone-Bannock, is editor-at-large for ICT, formerly Indian Country Today. He is on leave until March 2024.