In May 2022, Wisconsin Watch convened a forum of Ho-Chunk Nation citizens with tribal officials and journalists to discuss their reporting for the At the Crossroads collaborative series on the state of the economy in rural Indian Country.
At one point, Forrest Funmaker, Ho-Chunk Department of Natural Resources agriculture research and education manager, said the tribal government newsletter doesn’t provide the same level of reporting as Wisconsin Watch’s story on the tribal economy’s reliance on casinos.
“How is it that we’re supposed to understand what’s going on in the government?” Funmaker asked. “I think that creates a lot of these silos or barriers to our people understanding what’s going on with legislation. … How do we get the better reporting?”
Funmaker raised the fundamental question at the heart of the collaboration: how can nonprofit and tribal media better serve the information needs of Indigenous communities?
In April 2022, a collaboration of seven Institute for Nonprofit News members and three tribal outlets published the At the Crossroads series, the first pilot project for the Rural News Network consortium reporting on rural America. This project was made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.
The pilot project was designed to explore how project-based collaboration could lead to innovative, community-centered journalism serving Indigenous communities. It was also the first time an INN collaboration designated an editorial lead for the series. Senior Editor Dianna Hunt of ICT (formerly Indian Country Today) met with participating newsrooms and edited their stories before publication.
The series examined significant issues facing rural Indigenous communities from the perspective of those most directly impacted, including the well-kept secret of how much tribes contribute to regional economies; tribal leaders confronting their economy’s outsized reliance on casinos; Oklahoma’s first tribally owned sports team; and tribal citizens confronting the reality that a job can cost more than not having one.
The series generated several meaningful results:
●Surfacing significant issues across Indian Country through audience engagement: Each collaboration participant shared out a survey on jobs in the early stage of the project. The survey received responses from 268 people representing more than 130 tribal affiliations across 39 states and informed the development of the series.
● National reach and republication: Series stories were republished by 41 external outlets, and discussions on the reporting were hosted by All Things Considered, Native America Calling and Ciporoke.
● Building relationships for the future: Collaboration participants collectively explored methods to better reach and represent Indigenous communities in their coverage. Wisconsin Watch hired a consultant to help them connect with Ho-Chunk officials and community members for their reporting. Because of the collaboration, three participating outlets planned a listening session to better understand the information needs of the Indigenous communities they serve, with one reporting, “We believe this was the first step in creating a viable media ecosystem for Indigenous communities.”
The collaboration was managed under the editorial leadership of Indian Country Today, with project management support from Member Collaborations Editor Bridget Thoreson of INN. The participants were INN members Buffalo’s Fire, InvestigateWest, KOSU, New Mexico In Depth, Underscore and Wisconsin Watch, as well as tribal media outlets Mvskoke Media, Osage News and Rawhide Press. All outlets either employ Native staff or hired Native professionals for the series. Additional support was provided by the Native American Journalists Association.
Read the stories:
Working Together: Tribal partnerships bring regional jobs, Osage News – April 7, 2022
Green Energy’s Environmental and Economic Balancing Act, Underscore – April 7, 2022
Boom or Bust: Oil industry hits North Dakota, Buffalo’s Fire – April 7, 2022
Tribes Look To Renewable Energy To Power Jobs Of The Future, InvestigateWest – April 7, 2022
Work Penalties: Jobs can cost more than being unemployed, Rawhide Press – April 6, 2022
‘Reservation worthy’ cattle operation expands tribal enterprise, Mvskoke Media – April 6, 2022
Money for abandoned uranium mine cleanup spurs questions about design, jobs, New Mexico In Depth – April 5, 2022
Citizen Potawatomi Nation makes history in Oklahoma with new professional basketball team, KOSU – April 5, 2022
Pandemic shock pushes Wisconsin tribes to diversify economy, Wisconsin Watch – April 5, 2022
At the Crossroads: State of the Economy in Indian Country, Indian Country Today – April 4, 2022
Content reach
All series stories were featured by ICT, and collaboration partners republished selected series stories online and in print.
For five of the collaboration participants, their At the Crossroads story was the highest-ranking story for unique pageviews on their sites the week of publication, with several participants also noting they received high social media engagement for these stories. Metrics reporting by outlet is available in the appendix.
The reach of the story extended far beyond the participant outlets, with 41 outlets republishing stories from the series (full list available in the appendix). In addition, several outlets conducted interviews with participating journalists, including:
● All Things Considered, which interviewed Mark Trahant of ICT about his reporting on the hidden economy of Indian Country.
● Native America Calling, which airs daily episodes on dozens of radio stations across the country, dedicated an hour episode to New Mexico In Depth’s uranium mine story. The reporter was also interviewed by KUNM in Albuquerque.
● Ciporoke, a podcast on issues concerning the Wisconsin Ho-Chunk Nation, interviewed Wisconsin Watch staff and followed up with coverage of their forum discussing the future of the gaming industry.
● ICT, which featured interviews with collaboration participants on their daily international
broadcast.
On social, collaboration participants’ stories received more than 112,000 shares and comments
on Facebook and more than 2,000 interactions on Twitter, with significant additional reach from
posts by republishing partners.
Project outcomes
When the collaboration concluded we asked the partners to provide feedback on their experience through a survey and exit interviews. Several important themes emerged:
● Trust starts with listening. Several newsrooms generated additional story ideas from engaging with communities, and reported positive feedback from officials and community members following publication, such as this note from ICT reader Dave Castillo: “No one else is doing this level of quality reporting on issues important across a majority of the US where tribes … could be critical to long-term economic relevance.” One outlet said they were “wildly successful” in achieving their project goal of connecting with tribal communities in their area. Tribal outlets with deep community connections reported the value of exploring new methods of reporting: “It was good for the community because they felt like they were finally heard.”
● Editing leadership is key. Participants universally spoke highly of Hunt’s editorial leadership, citing her guidance as a key benefit of participating. By having an outlet setting the course for the series and keeping the reporting on track, local stories were spotlighted for a national audience and shared widely. Partners also praised the leadership of Bridget Thoreson and INN on the administrative handling and oversight of the project.
● Collaboration sparks conversations. Many outlets identified shared questions around their coverage, and because they were connected to others were able to explore and learn as a group. “We know so little about the information needs of Indigenous communities,” one participant noted. “It was a conversation with other outlets that would have never happened without this collaboration. We were all together in a Zoom room, and it was just so natural for us to continue the conversation right then.”
Challenges & Looking Ahead
The continuing COVID-19 pandemic represented a significant challenge to outlets’ plans to conduct in-person community engagement, with one planned event canceled due to the Omicron surge and others shifted to digital. Some outlets found that tribal citizens were reluctant to participate in the online survey, and experienced challenges connecting with sources.
Outlets also said they found the group meetings to be a significant time commitment and suggested shifting to less frequent meetings as the project progresses.
Even with the challenges, when asked whether they would participate in such a project again, every participant selected “very likely.”
“This project has been an invaluable learning experience, both in the content that we gathered and also learning about what it takes to report sensitively on tribal nations,” said Wisconsin Watch Investigative Reporter Mario Koran.
Appendix
Outlets that republished stories:
A total of 41 outlets, including digital, newspapers, radio and TV, republished stories from the At
the Crossroads series.
National
Belt magazine
GreenBiz
Pechanga.net
Our Community Now
Yahoo! news
Yes! magazine
Regional
Midwest
Great Lakes Now
Investigate Midwest
West
Boise State Public Radio
Crosscut
High Country News
Mountain West News Bureau
State/Local
Arizona
Tucson Sentinel
Minnesota
Red Lake Nation News
New Mexico
Albuquerque Journal
KUNM
New Mexico Political Report
Santa Fe Reporter
Source NM
The Gallup Independent
Oregon
Salem Statesman Journal
The Oregonian
Wisconsin
107.1
Channel 3000
Chippewa Herald
Colfax Messenger
DeForest Times-Tribune
Isthmus
Kaukauna Community News
La Crosse Tribune
Madison 365
PBS Wisconsin
The Capital Times
TMJ4
Urban Milwaukee
Wausau Pilot & Review
WGLR
WISC-TV
Wisconsin Newspaper Association
Wisconsin Public Radio
WUWM
How did we find this data?
We asked participants to provide engagement data from their sites and social accounts for web metrics and qualitative feedback via a survey.
For content distribution, we communicated directly with publishing partners and searched Google News alerts for variations of the series attribution and the first sentence of each story.
For social distribution results, we searched for social captures from CrowdTangle and Meltwater for the original stories posted on ICT and collaboration participant sites.
