Six-month program at Michigan paper is helping to train and empower Indigenous journalists

Meghanlata Gupta is a rising senior at Yale University and the founder of Indigenizing the News.

A partnership between The Record-Eagle in Traverse City, Michigan, and Indigenizing the News is bringing four Indigenous women to report, consult and train in The Record-Eagle newsroom for the next six months.

The four journalists will also co-publish their work in Indigenizing the News, a digital news source dedicated to Native news, voices and contemporary issues.

The Mishigamiing Journalism Project has four goals:

• Put Indigenous reporters in newsrooms in Michigan. Train them, pay them and create jobs for them.
• Make newsrooms in Michigan safe and inclusive for Indigenous journalists.
• Make coverage of Indigenous issues and tribal affairs in Michigan more thorough, just and meaningful.
• Empower Indigenous people to report in their own communities and beyond.

Record-Eagle Executive Editor Nate Payne said: “The Record-Eagle is proud to be part of this effort to train and empower Indigenous journalists. We have known for years that there are far too few Native writers, photographers and editors working in the field, and we hope through this project we can play a part in changing the status quo for the better.”

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