By STU WOO
The UNITY News

Kenneth Cooper felt he and his fellow Freedmen were left out.

Last March, the Cherokee Nation voted to define requirements for citizenship. Now, only ancestors of Native Americans registered under the Dawes Commission — a century-old federal government census of Native Americans — can become citizens.

But Cooper felt that was a racially tinged snub to the Freedmen, ancestors of the tribe’s former African slaves. So when Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith said Friday at a UNITY forum that race didn’t matter under the new requirements, Cooper stepped up to the microphone during the question-and-answer session.

“The first thing that you said … made me really angry,” said Cooper, who identifies as a Cherokee Freedman. The two then exchanged testy comments for the next five minutes.

In March 2007, 77 percent of Cherokee Nation citizens voted to approve a constitutional amendment allowing only those who have a Cherokee, Delaware or Shawnee ancestor listed on the Dawes Commission rolls. The commission took a census of Native Americans, taken from 1898 to 1907, to divest the Nation of its lands and allot them to individual citizens. The 2007 amendment overturned a 2006 Tribal Court ruling allowing non-Indian descendants of Freedmen and intermarried whites to become citizens.

Cooper said he found the amendment unjust, especially given that some of the tribe’s wealth came from slave work. He found the new restrictions unfair to Freedmen who had Cherokee blood because “there was no effort by the Dawes Commission (the federal census project) to find out if the Freedman had blood.”

Smith said that there were some Freedmen with Cherokee blood who were registered by the Dawes Commission, but Cooper said those were by far in the minority.

“The federal government provided due process,” Smith responded. “We cannot go back and second-guess that process. I cannot – perhaps you can.”

Friday’s forum, titled “Who is an Indian? Your Guide to Covering Native Americans,” was presented by the Native American Journalists Association.

Afterward, Cooper and Smith chatted outside the meeting room. The two had never met, though Smith was familiar with Cooper’s Louisiana Weekly column about the constitutional amendment last year. The meeting was amiable, both said, and Smith invited Cooper to discuss the topic with him in Cherokee Nation.

Both Cooper and Smith said they were glad to meet each other. Cooper said he would accept the offer to meet in Oklahoma as soon as his schedule allows.

Afterward, Cooper seemed to regret the surly nature of their question-and-answer session exchange, especially if he came off as an “angry black man,” Cooper said, smiling.

By JORDAN DRESSER
The UNITY News

The Native American Journalists Association held its annual banquet Friday at one of the few places in the nation established to accommodate the historic resettlement from Native American ancestral lands.

The American Indian Center of Chicago, one of the oldest Indian centers in the country, was formed in 1953, when the Indian Relocation Act was transporting hundreds of Native Americans into major cities. Chicago was the only one of five relocation cities without a large in-state reservation, according to the center’s Web site.

The center was formed to help ease the transition from reservations to the city. Tribes represented include Lakota, Navajo and Blackfoot. According to the 2000 Census, 0.4 percent of Chicago’s 2.9 million residents identified themselves as Native American.

At the banquet, NAJA presented the Freedom Forum with a Milestone Award for defending press freedom, last presented at the inaugural UNITY in 1994. The Freedom Forum, based in Washington, D.C., is a foundation dedicated to free press and free speech.

The banquet also included a performance by comedian Charlie Hill and a silent auction to raise funds for NAJA. Items included jewelry, pottery and pictures. NAJA had not conducted the election of its new board members by press time.

Next year’s conference is scheduled to be held in Albuquerque, N.M.

By TRACIE MORALES
The UNITY News Online

The brutal rape and beating of a Central Park jogger in 1989 drew national headlines, but the sexual assault and murder of a young black woman in New York that year barely got a mention, journalist Rubén Rosario said Wednesday at a panel session.

Rosario, of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said he saw the unfair coverage of certain crime stories firsthand while he was a reporter for the New York Daily News.

Today’s police reporters are expected to find impossible details, chase trends and crime statistics, but dwindling resources and other obstacles complicate fair crime coverage, the panelists said.

“When you get handed a lemon, make lemonade,” Rosario said to about 50 journalists with varying levels of experience.

Along with Rosario, panel speakers included Lori Dorfman, executive director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group; Alden Loury, editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter; and moderator Ted Guest, president of the Criminal Justice Journalists in Washington, D.C.

Learning how to deal with editors, police departments and public information officers is necessary to paint an accurate picture of crime as it relates to communities of color, according to Loury and Rosario.

“Gain sources that you can get to if you have a question,” Loury said. “You need to have a brain that you can pick for feedback on how to cover a particular story.”

Panelists said more in-depth reporting and telling humanizing stories might further people’s understanding of certain groups such as drug dealers, gang members and undocumented immigrants.

Rosario said the recent story of an undocumented Guatemalan woman required more reporting after national headlines demonized the 24-year-old. Olga Franco was in a vehicle that slammed into a school bus on Feb. 19, killing four children.

Journalists from the Pioneer Press returned to Franco’s village in Guatemala and reported that she moved to the United States to help support her family.

“She wasn’t just a monster from a foreign country who slammed her car into a bus and killed four white kids,” Rosario said. “We humanized her.”

Franco, who was charged with manslaughter, is awaiting trial.

The panelists said other forms of in-depth reporting include knowing about police department protocols, wrongful death suits involving officers, traffic stop data and clearance records for past cases.

By YOLANNE ALMANZAR
The UNITY News

When television network executives declined to release information about diversity in their newsrooms because of company policies, the National Association of Black Journalists got it themselves.

According to two surveys released by the organization at a news conference Friday, people of color are still a minority in television newsrooms’ highest leadership positions.

“They still resemble a cafeteria during integration. There are a few people here and there,” said Kathy Times, vice president of broadcast for NABJ and an evening anchor at WDBD-TV in Jackson, Miss.

One study surveyed news managers at 61 television stations owned and operated by ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, and found that 16.6 percent of them were racial minorities. More than a third of the stations have no people of color in the managerial ranks, the study said.

The second study focused on managers responsible for editorial content and talent development at ABC, NBC and CBS. Of the 85 vice presidents, executive producers, managing editors and bureau chiefs surveyed, 26 were racial minorities.

NABJ executives described the numbers as “abysmal.” Bob Butler, director of NABJ’s Region VI who conducted one of the studies, said he expected the numbers to be bad, but he didn’t think “they would be this bad.”

“On the one hand, you’re not surprised,” Butler said. “Those of us who have worked in the newsrooms know what it looks like. Our hope is that now that we have hard numbers, people will start asking questions.”

Butler said the organization’s results contradicted the annual projection of minorities in television and radio released by Radio-Television News Directors Association and Hofstra University.

The RTNDA survey, which was released earlier this month, found that minorities make up about a quarter of local television news staffs, the second highest percentage since 2001.

Minority television news directors reached an all-time high of 15.5 percent, up from 10.9 percent in 2006, the study also said. The total number of directors was not made available.

The RTNDA survey, conducted last year, gathered information from 1,647 operating non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 2,000 radio stations. Complete census data was not available about female TV news directors.

“It’s difficult to dispute hard numbers,” said Butler. “We have names, race and gender. We know who they are.”

Butler, who is also a reporter for KCBS Radio in California, said the intent of the study was not to assess blame, but rather to address the industry’s shortcomings. He said they would like to conduct the study annually to continue tracking the numbers, and to ensure that there will be change.

“What we’re saying is if you need someone, we have these people who will add competence and diversity to your newsrooms,” he said.

NABJ President Barbara Ciara said network leaders should use these studies as a starting point for change.

“We’re tired of hearing that they can’t find qualified individuals,” said Ciara, the managing editor and an anchor for WTKR News in Norfolk, Va. “They are here, under this umbrella, this weekend.”

8:30 - 10 a.m.
How to Produce Multimedia on a Budget
McCormick Place, W181

10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
Gays, Guns and God: Covering the Culture Wars in Presidential Politics
McCormick Place, W178

1:15 - 2:45 p.m.
Beyond “Illegal Alien”: Toward Fair, Ethical and Accurate Immigration Coverage
McCormick Place, W192C

Fade Out: What Does Media Consolidation Mean for Journalists and Consumers of Color?
McCormick Place, W196

Solid Sound: Getting the Highest Quality Audio
McCormick Place, W193

7 - 10 p.m.
NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards Gala
Sheraton Hotel, Chicago Ballroom

9 - Until
AAJA Karaoke Night
Sheraton Hotel

10 p.m. - Until
NABJ Tampa Kickoff Party
Sheraton Hotel

9 p.m. - Until
NAHJ Vamos Pa’ Puerto Rico!
Sheraton Hotel

Sunday, July 27, 11 a.m.
Sen. Barack Obama
McCormick Place, Skyline Ballroom