Never in a million years did Tom Eagle Staff, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a retired federal worker, imagine he\u2019d end up a broadcast executive. But if everything goes according to plan, on July 1, he\u2019ll be in charge of the reservation\u2019s first commercial radio station. The Cheyenne River Reservation encompasses two counties and more than 1,400,000 acres of tribal trust land. The only available radio is KLND, broadcasting out of Little Eagle on the Standing Rock Reservation, about an hour and a half north. But KLND\u2019s signal doesn\u2019t reach all of Cheyenne River, which means some of its residents are not served by radio at all. \u201cOur tribe had been working with KLND for about 10 years, trying to get some of our sports and community events broadcasted by them,\u201d said Eagle Staff. \u201cBut they went off the air a couple of times, and when they got back on, they couldn\u2019t get up to full power.\u201d Then, in 2010, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a Tribal Radio Priority to make it easier for tribes to obtain broadcasting licenses and frequencies. It occurred to Eagle Staff the reservation might be able to have a radio station of its own. He approached a local foundation that hands out seed money to new businesses. \u201cThey said, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t you do a feasibility study?\u2019 And that\u2019s how I got involved,\u201d Eagle Staff said, laughing. The FCC granted Cheyenne River its broadcast license and FM frequency last November. Now, the tribe is waiting for a final construction permit that will allow it to erect a transmitting tower. \u201cThen all we have to do is get all the equipment installed in our studio and we\u2019ll get fired up and connected, hopefully by July 1st,\u201d he said. Then he laughed, adding, \u201cAnd that\u2019s a very optimistic schedule.\u201d A solid voice Cell phones and satellite radio may have eclipsed radio in urban centers, but in rural communities, radio may be the only means of getting critical news, information and entertainment. For tribes, it\u2019s a critical means of preserving a culture, perhaps even saving lives. \u201cThere are 567 Native Nations in this country, and so far, we have 60 radio stations that are licensed either to the tribal governments or tribal communities,\u201d said Loris Taylor of Arizona\u2019s Hopi Nation. She is president and CEO of Native Public Media, which represents the media interests of Native America through legacy and new media technologies, and played an important role in helping to establish the first FCC Tribal Priority for broadcasting. Radio is particularly important on rural reservations where many tribal members live \u201coff the grid.\u201d \u201cThat means that many services that we take for granted in cities and towns that are wired and connected to the larger internet are not available, like cell phones or 911,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are beginning to see a lot more weather-related incidents across Indian Country, and when those disasters and emergencies occur, native radio is a solid and often the sole voice.\u201d Bad jokes and chickadees It\u2019s early morning in Callaway, Minnesota, about 400 miles east of Cheyenne River. Inside the studio's of radio KKWE NiiJii on the White Earth Indian Reservation, DJ Terry Goodsky reads a selection of \u201cbad jokes,\u201d a daily feature on his \u201cTalking with Terry\u201d show. \u201cWhat\u2019s a tree\u2019s favorite beverage?\u201d he asks. \u201cRoot Beer,\u201d he answers, groaning and chuckling. \u201cWhy was there thunder and lightening in the laboratory? The scientists were brainstorming.\u201d Goodsky, an enrolled member of Minnesota's Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Indians, plays music ranging from popular hits to Native rap and pow-wow songs \u2013 and a \u201cWord of the Day\u201d segment: Gaas gosh ka na shii, \u201cchickadee.\u201d It\u2019s one of the ways that Niijii radio helps efforts to revitalize the Ojibwe language, which UNESCO lists as \u201cseverely endangered.\u201d Today, only about 1,000 Minnesotan Ojibwe still speak the language, most of them over age 70. Other station programming includes \u201cGichi Aya'aag Bizindaw ya,\u201d which translates roughly as \u201cListen to Your Elders,\u201d in which senior tribal members share personal and cultural histories. White Earth is a small reservation comprising about 1,000 acres. That means Niijii Radio reaches populations outside reservation borders. \u201cOne of the things that I have found in my time working here is that it really helps to build relationships with the non-Native communities,\u201d said General Manager Margaret Rousu. \u201cWhen you think about a marginalized population and the stereotypes that go with it, this has been an opportunity to educate people about who we really are as Ojibwe people.\u201d Niijii Radio relies entirely on funding from the State of Minnesota and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation that receives almost all of its funding, about $445 million, from the U.S. government and distributes those funds as grants to non-commercial television and radio stations and their programs. Out of the 60 native radio stations in the United States, about 35 rely on CPB funding and local donations. This week, President Donald Trump proposed huge cuts in government spending, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But converting to a commercial station like Cheyenne River is not an option, added Niijii Radio Program Manager Carlee Kuhn. \u201cThink about the area we live in,\u201d she said. Roughly 44 percent of White Earth\u2019s Ojibwe live at or below the poverty line, and close to half of its adult population are unemployed. \u201cIf we lose CPB funding,\u201d said Rousu, gloomily, \u201cthat\u2019s it. We\u2019ll just shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Never in a million years did Tom Eagle Staff, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a retired federal worker, imagine he\u2019d end up a broadcast executive. But if everything goes according to plan, on July 1, he\u2019ll be in charge of the reservation\u2019s first commercial radio station. The Cheyenne River Reservation encompasses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}