SILETZ, OREGON
NAPA CONFERENCE
BY: Teresa M. Miller
March 21st through the 23rd
Shirtey Strickler, Enrollment Manager and
myself, Teresa Miller were able to attend
the Native American Press Association
Conference in Tacoma, Washington.
A p ril
20th
S h irle y
and
I
left....mySelf sniffling and sneezing with the
flu and Shirley moaning and groaning with
h4r bad back as we set off together on our
trek. I get lost going around the block so its
a good thing that Shirley was there to keep
me from ending up in San Diego instead of
Tacoma!
Our main objective was to gather
enough information at this conference to
ensure that the quality of the Siletz
Newsletter, which we both compile, is up to
standard with other Tribal Newsletters in
this nation. The exciting part was that we
found we are doing a number of things
correctly and we also learned ways to
irnprove the Newsletter.
Each day the conference ran from
9:00 a.m, to 5:00 p.m. Three different
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Princess Siletz Rodeo, 1938
classes were offered concurrently through
out the day and each class lasted one hour
and 45 minutes. None of the classes were
repeated, so there really was a wide range
of subject matter. Shirley and I split up and
each took different courses during the day
only seeing each other at breaks and meal
time. A person would attend three or four
classes each day all pertaining to
journalism.
Most, if not all, of these
courses were taught by professionals in the
journalism field: investigative reporters,
newspaper editors, professional news
photographers, etc.
During the luncheons, panel
discussions were held pertaining to issues
which affect Native Americans throughout
the United States. We learned a great deal
about the difficulties being experienced by
the Tribes in the State of Wisconsin
concerning Native Fishing Rights.
Also during this conference the
Native American Press Association (NAPA)
was officially renamed the Native American
Journalism Association (NAJA).
Friday evening the NAJA awards
banquet was held featuring Senator Inouye
of Hawaii, the Lieutenant Governor of Idaho
May 1990 -
PAGE 13
and Tim Wapato as guest speakers. All three
were excellent speakers. However, Senator
Inouye has a commanding stage presence
that almost puts a person in awe. He has a
steady, deep, resounding voice and a way of
speaking that held us all entranced. His
appearance ended with a standing ovation
and continuing applause from the crowd of
what appeared to be around 700 people. We
were entertained by Native American
Drummers and Dancers. An auction was
held as a NAPA fundraiser and the evening
came to its conclusion around 11:00 p.m.
after the NAJA awards were given out,
Shirley and I met a number of
interesting people from Tribes ail across
the United States and Canada. In addition, we
both learned a great deal and look forward to
putting what we have learned to use in the
future editions of the Siletz Newsletter. A
special "Thank You" to Tribal Council for
allowing us to take part in this rewarding
event which I hope will be of benefit to
Tribal Members through the Siletz
Newsletter.