Resources for covering tribal issues

A reporter who's taking over a beat covering Indian reservations asked about advice and resources for covering a specialized beat.

One of the first things I did was check out the web site of the Native American Journalists Association. NAJA's conference in Denver this June 7-9 will open with a valuable half-day session, Covering Business on Indian Lands, presented by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism (an API offspring who left the nest last year and now is based at Arizona State University).

I encourage this reporter to attend the NAJA convention both for this session and for the opportunity to connect with Native American reporters, many of whom cover reservations themselves and others of whom may have some insights on covering tribes. NAJA's web site also has a list of resources that might be helpful.

Reporters covering any specialized beat should seek to connect with other reporters covering the same beats. Lots of beats have formal organizations that allow you to share ideas, learn tips, receive training and attend conferences with colleagues. Check out the list and links at the end of this column (and if I've left out an organization you belong to, e-mail me and send me the link for that group and I'll add it).

Investigative Reporters and Editors also is a helpful group for reporters on many beats. You might visit the IRE web site and see if a past IRE convention has presented a session on covering reservations (I bet this has happened on multiple occasions). I'm sure past NAJA or UNITY conventions have addressed this issue as well. Find out who presented those sessions and ask them if they can send you any handouts or tip sheets they used.

I'm not aware of a group of reporters covering reservations, tribes or Native American issues, but you could start such an organization. Or if you are covering transportation, pop culture or some other beat that's increasing in popularity, maybe you connect through a list-serv or just an informal e-mail network, with hopes that this will lead to a formal organization in time.

You also could get online and see if some J-school has a center or professor who specializes in the topic you cover. Connect with her and see if she has any online materials that are helpful or any resources to recommend. Maybe you could take a class online. For instance, the Al Neuharth Media Center at the University of South Dakota sponsors an annual Native American Journalism Career Conference. The University of Montana also has a program focused on Native American journalism. I'd make some connections at both universities and see who might be a valuable resource. I know that Teresa Lamsam at the University of Nebraska at Omaha specializes in issues dealing with the Native American press. And I'd look for more academic resources.

I also suggest two of my workshop handouts that deal with beat coverage: Mastering Your Beat and Developing and Cultivating Sources.

You also could check out the online course I developed for News University, Beat Basics and Beyond. I developed it for inexperienced reporters covering a new beat, so you might want to skip over parts if you're an experienced reporter taking over a specialty beat. But some of it would be helpful to any reporter on a new beat. The "Beat Breakdown Tool" presents a series of questions that would be helpful in planning your coverage of any beat.

Check out the training resources at No Train, No Gain, too. This is the most helpful collection of newsroom training resources I know.

Check out the News U offerings from time to time to see if it offers a course on covering Native American issues or ethnic beats. (I'll be e-mailing Howard Finberg, News U's director, a link to this column, so he might seek someone to develop such a course, if it's not already in the works.) The featured course right now, Handling Race & Ethnicity, taught by Keith Woods, looks like it would be helpful. Another course, to be offered this fall, is Reporting Across Cultures, Writing About Differences, taught by Victor Merina. Another course, Reznet: Advanced Reporting, is targeted for Native American college students. Other specialized courses would be helpful for reporters covering cops, courts, health care and other beats.

Some advice I would offer particularly for this beat:

Be honest about what you know, what you don't know, who you are and what your role is. If you're a Native American yourself, you need to be honest with those you're covering about your role as a journalist. Some might expect you to be an advocate for your people and you need to explain your responsibility to report honestly the tough stories as well as those they might regard as positive. If you're not a Native American, you will face skepticism and resentment - some of it justified - about previous reporting by your organization or the media generally that people regarded as insensitive, shallow or biased. Greet this skepticism and resentment with a candid acknowledgment of what you don't know and a sincere invitation to help you understand better the culture of the tribe(s) you cover.

Be present and visible in the community you cover. You can't cover any community effectively by e-mail and telephone. That's especially true if you are regarded as an outsider and if your paper is regarded skeptically. Go to community meetings and special events such as Powwows, not just to cover them but to make connections, to be visible, to show interest.

As with covering any racial or ethnic beat, you must not shy from covering the social problems that sometimes are important news in any minority group. But be sure to write about everyday life, too. Tell stories of achievement and family life, and your stories about alcoholism and poverty will carry more credibility and seem less like stereotypes.

Watch for the trap of treating any individual - including elected and other official leaders - as spokesperson for an entire community. A tribal chairman may speak for the tribal government, or an activist might speak for an organization that he heads, but neither of them speaks for the whole tribe or a whole community. Reservations, like any community, have a wide range of individuals and experiences and opinions. Your reporting should reflect that diversity.

If you have more advice for my colleague, please e-mail me and I'll add it to this column, with credit. I've also asked training colleagues and some colleagues with experience covering tribal issues to share their advice. I'll add that to this column as well.

Colleen Kenney of the Lincoln Journal Star, co-winner with Kevin Abourezk of the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for their masterful "Standing at the Crossroads" project from the Pine Ridge Reservation, passes along this advice: "Have an open heart."

Michael Roberts, Deputy Managing Editor Staff Development / Projects at The Arizona Republic, adds this advice:

Here in Arizona we cover a good many tribes, reservations and Native American issues. Not surprisingly, access is the challenge. Any reporter asked to cover a tribe or reservation must take the time and effort to develop a relationship. Part of that is figuring out why the Native Americans you want to cover should even talk with you. (There are few reasons.) Another part is developing an understanding of their point of view on all levels. Lastly, it will be a challenge to make your editors understand why the standard news, business or feature story they want may not be there, but other kinds of stories may be possible if they start with that tribal point of view and build from there.

We are lucky to have several veteran reporters who have developed those kind of relationships, including one woman, Betty Reid, who is Navajo and regularly visits her mother deep in the reservation. She will tell you access is still a problem for her at times.

Michael recommends reading this story by Betty Reid.

Lisa Spellman, a communications specialies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is a Native American who covered some tribal issues for the Omaha World-Herald. She adds this advice:

Be skeptical. Be wary. Not everyone you meet will be honest with you and will try to sway you for their own gain. Until you get to know the inside politics on the reservation you are covering, I would second guess anything one person tells me. Always check things out with another source to find out if that is the truth.

I know on my own reservation there is a lot of politics. My family is from O'Kreek, S.D., a community that doesn't have very good roads or services, but when you go to Mission or any of the other communities that the current tribal chairman lives in you will see differently. This creates a lot of tension and someone new coming in could be seen a political pawn in an underlying struggle. So, until you really get to know the tribe you are covering and the various communities you will be going in to I would be very careful about believing everything I am told.

Here's that list of beat organizations:

Arena Football League Writers Association
Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors
Association of Food Journalists
Association of Health Care Journalists
Cat Writers' Association
Criminal Justice Journalists
Dog Writers Association of America
Education Writers Association
Football Writers Association of America
Military Reporters and Editors
National Association of Science Writers
National Collegiate Baseball Writers
North American Agricultural Journalists
Obituary Writers
Outdoor Writers Association of America
Religion Newswriters Association
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
Society of American Travel Writers
Society of Environmental Journalists
U.S. Basketball Writers Association