Tim Giago

In 1981, Giago moved back to the Pine Ridge reservation to begin the Lakota Times as a weekly community newspaper to represent his neighbors' lives. It was the first independently owned Native American weekly newspaper. In the beginning, he earned revenue by publishing the most complete list of pow wows nationally and selling related advertising. This gave him needed independence on the reservation. He wrote editorials criticizing US and state policy related to Native Americans. He also founded the Native American Journalists Association and served as its first president. Gradually he expanded his paper's coverage to all the Indian reservations in South Dakota, then to American Indian issues nationwide. To reflect its national coverage, in 1992 he changed the name of the paper to Indian Country Today. In 2009 he founded the Native Sun News Today which is published on paper and online. Giago was a Harvard Nieman Fellow in 1991.