Writer, journalist, longtime ICT employee Lisa J. Ellwood dies at 57
ICT Editor’s Note: Lisa Ellwood was an extraordinary person and incredible colleague to the IndiJ Public Media, ICT, and ICT Newscast teams. She was one of the three contributors who stayed with the organization when it was revived in 2018. Her role as press pool manager and formerly an opinion editor was crucial to ICT’s rebirth, and her passion for the work and mission showed each day. Lisa’s “distinctive voice” also played a huge role in the newcast’s opening, a legacy that will live on. Our condolences to her family.
Vincent Schilling
Native Viewpoint
Lisa J. Ellwood, a member of the interrelated Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, Nanticoke Indian Tribe in Delaware and Nanticoke-Lenape Indian Tribal Nation in New Jersey, referred to as “The Original People of the Delaware Bay Region,” passed away on Thursday, May 11, 2023, after a battle with cancer in her country of residence, Scotland.
Most recently she was the press pool manager at ICT, formerly known as Indian Country Today. She served as a freelance correspondent for ICT when it was owned by Oneida Nation.
She formerly served as Western Energy News Digest editor for the Energy News Network and was also a consulting editor and features writer for Promota Magazine. Ellwood also had her work published in The Center for the Arts in Society, Carnegie-Mellon University with her short story titled, “The Keepers of the Land.”
A former resident of the United States with her upbringing in Philadelphia, Ellwood studied journalism at Temple University’s School of Media and Communications, earning a bachelor of arts degree majoring in journalism and advertising and minoring in marketing and french. She also studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania concentrating on communications and international marketing.
Throughout her career in journalism, she contributed to publications all over the world, specializing in data journalism and visualization, Indigenous issues, disability rights, mental illness and autism. Her blog site “The Creative Crip” was cited several times in The Guardian’s Society Daily section for her commentaries on being a “disabled and housebound” journalist.
Ellwood studied six languages in her life and career. She was competent in French and as a resident in Scotland and the United Kingdom, was working to become competent in Welsh.
She was active in the journalism community and championed often for Indian Country, most notably for the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Her extensive report and article in ICT, “A Comprehensive Investigative Report on Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women The Curiously Different Tales of Violence against Indigenous Women On Both Sides of Turtle Island,” has been cited by publications all over the world since being published in 2016.
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She was also an active member in several organizations including the Native American Journalists Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists in the United Kingdom.
In addition to her extensive work in journalism, Ellwood also wrote fantasy-based fiction for the role-playing gaming community. Two of her popular works include “Descendants of the Three Sisters: Native American Clans of the Northeast - White Wolf,” a role-playing game supplement book to Vampire the Masquerade, which includes Indigenous-based themes and Native American vampires. The other publication is “Snowhaven Savage Worlds,” from High Level Games, which includes story guidelines in dark fantasy and snowbound wastelands.
She was also one of the contributing writers to the popular Indigenous-themed comic book collection, “A Howl: An Indigenous Comic Collection of Wolves, Werewolves, and Rougarou,” which was led by editor Elizabeth LaPensée and published by Native Realities Press via Lee Francis.
Ellwood was a former member of the executive committee of the National Board of Directors of the Graphic Artist’s Guild. When working with the Graphic Artist’s Guild, she headed the Graphic Design Certification Committee where she created and presented the first-of-its-kind proposal for Graphic Designer certification, which was accepted and approved by the Guild in May of 1998.
In her decades of experience, Ellwood began her career as a marketing specialist that contributed to a number of Blue Chip, Fortune 500 companies.
As Ellwood so often included in her correspondence to colleagues all over the world, she was “a strong communicator with a distinctive voice.”
Notable works by Lisa J. Ellwood
- A Comprehensive Report on MMIW: The Curiously Different Tales of Violence against Indigenous Women On Both Sides of Turtle Island
- Milosevic: The Butcher of the Balkans
- Pocahontas Death Day Celebrations in England
- Two Shots From That Cannon: The History and Significance of the Duck and Dive
- Generations of Resistance: Mississaugas Host Annual Three Fires Homecoming Pow Wow
- We Are Still Here: The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation 38th Annual Pow Wow
- The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska Pow Wow: A Time to Celebrate its History and Traditions
- Celebrate the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Strawberry Festival and Pow Wow
- Former Native Boarding School Celebrates Annual Father's Day Pow Wow
