Tim Giago – A “Shining Star” inducted into National Hall of Fame

 

OKLAHOMA CITY – On November 5, the First Americans Museum auditorium was filled with the “Who’s Who” of Indian Country for the 2022 Induction Ceremony of nine notable Native Americans into the National Native American Hall of Fame.

The purpose of that organization is to recognize and celebrate the contributions of contemporary Native Americans, both to their own people and the world, said James Parker Shield, Little Shell Chippewa Cree, MT founder and Executive Director.

Master of Ceremonies Tallchief noted that the inductees are “shining stars” of Indian Country, nominated and vetted through rigorous selection for life-long contributions to their people.

One of them was the late Tim Giago, founder, owner, publisher, editor and journalist of Indian Country Today and Native Sun News Today. He was honored and recognized for more than forty years of service in journalism, a guardian of free speech in Indian Country.

A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, born in Kyle, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Giago spent many of his formative years in the community of Wounded Knee. Giago’s tribal name “Nanwica Kciji” translates to “Stands up for Them”.

He did that.

Jackie Giago, Tim’s wife of 25 years and business manager of Native Sun News was on hand to accept the award, resplendent in black and silver. “Tim was so pleased to receive this recognition,” she stated.  “He was looking forward to attending this event and renewing acquaintance with the other inductees, having known many of them for many years. Sadly, the Creator called him home before this was possible, after a long battle with diabetes, which afflicts so many tribal people.”

Other inductees included: Governor Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation; Ryneldi Beneciti, Navajo Nation the first woman to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association; John Echohawk, Pawnee Nation, Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund; Suzan Harjo, Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee Nation; Joanne Shenandoah, Oneida, Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter; Earl Old Person Sr. Blackfeet leader and Patricia Zell, Arapaho/Navaho descent, former Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

The NNIHAF was but one of many honors that Giago had received during his long tenure as a leading Native American journalist.

He was one of the first Native Americans to be accepted as a Nieman Fellow, Harvard University.

In 1990, he prevailed upon the late South Dakota Governor George Mickleson to establish Native American Day, replacing Columbus Day, a movement which spread across the nation.  They also established a Year of Reconciliation in South Dakota, a state where much conflict between Natives and non-natives occurred.

In association with other national tribal spokespersons such as Suzan Harjo, Tim led the campaign to get the Washington Redskins Football team to make a name change. “We are not mascots”, he often wrote. That battle required decades of commitment and in the end, he and others won, showing that it is possible for poor Indians to challenge and defeat corporate America. If you have the guts to stick it out.

As a survivor of Indian Boarding Schools, Giago was one of the first to call attention to that matter, now a matter of international concern. He penned a book titled, “Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools” detailing his personal experience.

As a founder of the Native American Journalism Association (NAJA), Giago made it his business to mentor and support other tribal “voices”. He also supported non-Indian journalists friendly to the native cause. At first count, in the 1980’s he estimated there was about 104 Native journalists in all of America.  Many of those were struggling in remote areas of Indian Country. He reached out to encourage and support nearly all of them.

“You live on the ground,” he would say.  “Write it like you see it and know it. Write to your people. Others will read it too, but your people are your audience.”

He demanded the hard truth from his writers, never pandering to Tribal government or other forces. He ever maintained a strong independent voice.

Journalism, as Tim learned the hard way is not a highly paid profession. He started his first newspaper in a very unlikely place – the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where poverty outweighs advertising potential. Indeed, he recalled working seven days a week for over seven months before he earned a penny in profit. Ironically, though he was very successful through more than forty years, making sure that correspondents and staff got paid first. A dedicated capitalist, he would not consider government grants or non-profit status, not wanting anyone else to have a “say-so” about what he could or could not write.

When starting, he was encouraged by Enos Poorbear, then President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Every morning, Enos and Tim got together for coffee, donuts and conversation. Tim later wrote about that special relationship.

Poorbear believed that tribal stories should be preserved in a unique tribal manner and Giago devoted himself to that mission.

Because Giago always believed in calling a spade a spade, his reservation-based office was actually fire-bombed and destroyed during the tumultuous times of AIM occupation at Pine Ridge. He recalled a bullet passing right next to his ear, fired through his old Ford pickup.

Print media was his passion. “Old people like me like to hold a newspaper in their hands. Read it over a cup of coffee, do the crossword puzzles, clip out obituaries and later use it to start the woodstove.  The internet is not readily available to many of our people,” he explained.

Thus, in spite of increased costs of production and distribution, he insisted on the hard copies of Native Sun News Today.  He did, however, succumb to producing the online version of Native Sun News Today, managed by younger staff though he rarely looked at it. “There is something about newsprint,” he once said. “It smells good.”

Recently, when NSNT was bleeding due to COVID, inflation etc., one of his editors suggested a cost-saving measure – run the obits in black and white.

“Nope,” he declined.  “Those mean a lot to people. They clip them out. Paste them on the refrigerator and make copies for relatives.”

“And,” he grinned, “they buy a lot of newspapers.”

He was canny. He was dedicated. He was smart. Sometimes given to grouchy, he lived to share the news with our people and insisted his writers do the same.

“Let’s start another fight with the mayor’s office about homeless Indians in Rapid City,” he once chuckled.

Inevitably, the Mayor’s Office paid attention to Native Sun News Today. A few things got done.  Additional resources to address the problem were found. More homeless Indians in Rapid City found a little bit more help; fewer froze to death in that arctic winter. That fight, like so many others, was not personal on Tim’s part. He “stood for them”,

National Native American Hall of Fame nailed it: Tim Giago was a “shining star”.

Though that star is no longer shining directly, the embers of it will continue to flicker through the words of the many Native journalists that he inspired.

(Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com)

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