Indian Country Today, which is a must read for anyone interested in tribal news, but which ceased publication in September, is soon making a comeback. Well known Editor Mark Trahant and Associate Editor Vincent Schilling will be at the helm.
The return of the publication was announced last week by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI.) The digital platform containing the newspaper has been transferred to NCAI from the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.
The editor, Trahant is a member of the Shoeshone-Bannock tribe and Schilling belongs to the Akwesasne Mohawk tribe. They will be working with a larger staff than before.
Trahant publishes Trahant Reports, has won many journalism awards and is on the faculty of the University of North Dakota. He is former editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and also worked for the Seattle Times, Arizona Republic and Salt Lake Tribune. A jury finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, he was also a judge for the awards.
He will take over after the spring semester.
NCAI President Jefferson Keel praised the incoming editor. “Mark is respected in and out of Indian Country for his professionalism and journalistic skills.”
NCAI Executive Director Jacqueline Pata added, “We are eager to add to this important platform for Indian Country. We will work to make sure that this next chapter of Indian Country Today is both sustainable and useful while maintaining the primary goal of dedicated service others have forged before us.”
Trahant credited Schilling with “keeping Indian Country Today vital during the transition. This is important and will make it that much easier to build the next journalistic platform.”
Schilling is a 10-year veteran of the paper where he was arts and entertainment, sports and powwow editor. He was part of the White House press pool.
He commented, “A lot of readers out there noticed that I was still contributing to the site with breaking news and I want to sincerely thank them for their continued words of support over the past few months.”
