For 25 years, the Native American Journalism Association has worked to serve Native American journalists and it will soon branch out to include the University of Idaho.
“We are trying to make it the third branch in the U.S.” said Becky Tallent, UI journalism professor and the adviser for the organization. “They are located in Montana and Arizona … I would really like to beat the University of Oklahoma.”
An Oklahoma native and member of the Cherokee nation, Tallent said it’s important for Native American journalists to have an organization that will rally behind them and can understand the difficulties they go through.

“On native lands, you don’t have the First Amendment, even though some tribes have Indian civil rights acts,” she said. “But in essence, tribes can choose which rules they want to follow and when you’re the journalist, that makes it very difficult.”
Tallent said native journalists also have to deal with racism and cultural ignorance, which the national organization can help protect its members from.
However, she said student don’t have to be Native American to become a member and in fact encourages people of other ethnicities to participate. Learning to identify and deal with the issues of Native Americans is beneficial to all budding journalists, she said.

“There was a case with ‘The Spokesman Review‘ where they had a tribal affairs reporter,” Tallent said. “He was Indian first of all, and then he wrote some things that offended the tribe. So they wanted to have a meeting with his editor.”

According to Tallent, while the man was waiting outside he noticed a publication about casinos and began flipping through it. Based on what he read he wrote a story about the tribe’s intention to build a casino and ruined relations between the tribe and the paper.
“It was shoddy reporting for one thing,” Tallent said. “But it was also a reckless sign of disrespect. You need to understand the culture before you should write about it.”

David Velarde, the new program service coordinator for the Native American Student Center, said he encourages any student interested in Native American issues to join.
“If nothing else it will help people develop their communication skills,” he said. “I think people really underestimate the importance of being a good public speaker and writer.”

Lewiston being his hometown, Velarde said his speech was once very “country” and full of slang. He said his degree in public relations helped train him to break many of his bad habits.
“It’s a pretty common problem in this area,” he said. “We have a good native population and this is a great tool for all our native students … students in general really.”
Currently the journalism department has between 12 and 18 Native American students out of the 433 total at the university. Tallent said education is treated differently in native culture and because of this, many students raised on reservations don’t attend college.

“Our education is different than European education,” Tallent said. “We live in three worlds — it’s family, tribe and other. Culturally I should have stayed home, but I knew I wanted to be successful in the other world so I had to continue my education.”
According to Tallent, 30 years ago journalists didn’t have to go to college, but now it holds a greater weight. She said she wants native students to be encouraged to continue in higher education and said one of the greatest issues facing universities retention.

“You have to remember that the hardest part is being away from family and feeling alone,” Tallent said. “That’s why it’s vital to have organizations like the Native American Center and NAJA to give them the support they won’t find in the classroom.
NAJA is in the process of looking for members. For students there is a $20 membership fee, for faculty and staff it is $55. Anyone interested in joining can go to the NAJA Web site at www.naja.com and pay online. For further information about NAJA contact Tallent at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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