Native American Journalism Association Celebrates 25 Years

Fund staffers Dina Horwedel and Jonas Greene had the opportunity to present information to the Native American Journalists Association about the Think Indian campaign and how an advertisement can tell a story. As part of the program, they discussed how using social media such as Twitter, blogs, and Facebook can move a story forward.

Journalists are not the only storytellers in Indian Country, however. Indian people have been storytellers since the beginning of time. Telling stories has been the way our people have perpetuated its sacred religions, languages, and histories.

Today we have many new media available to tell our stories. Although the old ways-sitting around a fire and telling a story-are often the most pleasurable, we can use technology to spread our stories to our people, who are scattered around the country, and to non-Natives, to share our stories with those who may not know about our understand the hardships we have endured, and the strength it took to do so.

As we continue our Think Indian campaign at the American Indian College Fund, I would like to invite you to share your stories of Thinking Indian and your personal stories with us. Join us at American Indian College Fund groups, pages, and causes on Facebook. Check out our channel on Youtube and our blog on myspace. You can also follow us on Twitter at collegefund or start a dialogue by posting your comments to this blog.

This is just the beginning. We will also be launching a new blog soon, featuring guest speakers--hopefully you! We want to hear YOUR story, whether you are a donor, a tribal college student, a hopeful student, retired teacher, board member, corporate partner, or tribal college president. After all, it is all of our stories that tell what it means to be part of the tribal college movement, helping American Indian people complete a college education.