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Welcome Song Dustin George and Jessie Beavers of
the Buffalo Creek Dancers sang a traditional song while
other members of the group danced and welcomed this
year's NAJA participants.
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Warrior Tradition Veteran Jack Johnson, Mohawk Na
tion, led the presentation of the color guard. Johnson, of the
North American Iroquois Veteran's Association, was in the
1 1 th Airborne Division of the United States Air Force serving
in Korea from 1950-1 953.
By Brent Merrill
uffalo, NY The 17th Annual Native American
Journalists Association Conference was held in
Buffalo, New York at the Adam's Mark Hotel on
June 13-16. This year's conference was hosted by the
six Tribes of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy
the Onandaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, Tonawanda
and Tuscarora. Buffalo is the aboriginal land of the Sen
eca Nation.
Veterans from the Confederacy opened the event with
the traditional presentation of the color guard. Jack Johnson,
Mohawk Nation, led the color guard presentation.
Following the presentation of the colors, Seneca chil
dren from the Faithkeeper School on the nearby Allegh
eny Reservation welcomed conference participants with
a prayer of thanksgiving called the Ganonyon. The chil
dren delivered the prayer in their traditional language,
then they danced.
Throughout the conference, workshops and classes
were held in print, broadcast, visual and new media like
Internet news and web design. Workshops focused on
advanced reporting, excellence in editing, investigative
writing, community-based journalism, design and lay
out, photojournalism fundamentals and digi
tal photography.
This year's conference
featured a career fair, a
student recognition
banquet and key'
note addresses
by Gary Brouse
of the Interfaith
Center on Cor
porate Re
sponsibility and Kevin
Klose of Na
tional Public
Radio (NPR).
Photo by Kim Mueller
Brouse talked about his goal of educating America's
corporate population into investing their money into busi
nesses that don't perpetuate traditional stereotypes of
minority groups.
Klose talked about his desire to have a closer relation
ship with Indian Country and the journalists who work in
Tribal communities. Klose said he would like to see more
Native journalists in the radio medium in the future. As
the President and CEO of NPR, Klose said he would do
everything in his power to see the gap between the num
bers of Native journalists and non-Native journalists close.
Despite the usual excitement that is inherent at typi
cal NAJA conferences, this gathering was different.
People were excited, especially the young people who
are a huge part of every NAJA conference, but one of the
usual smiling faces was not present this year.
Richard LaCourse, the recognized dean of Native jour
nalists, passed away on March 9 from a stroke during heart
surgery. LaCourse was just 62.
LaCourse was a mentor and role model for many Na
tive journalists and he was remembered with a testimo
nial at this year's conference.
LaCourse would have loved the idea of journalism with
out borders the theme of this year's confer
ence. The backdrop of Buffalo and its prox
imity to several reservations and the
land of First Nation's people
(Canada) was the perfect setting
for this year's gathering. 0
T Spectacular View One
of the most amazing natural
wonders lr the world, Niagra
Falls, is located just minutes from
Buffalo Tha view, at left.
shows Bridal Veil Falls with the
mist from Horseshoe Falls in the 4
background and the view, at right,
shows Horseshoe Falls with the
Peace Bridge linking the United
States to Ontario, Canada in the
background.
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