ST. IGNATIUS — A newspaper that paved the way for many tribal newspapers in Montana is still in operation seven decades later.
Charkoosta News was founded in 1955 by former Tribal Chairman Walt McDonald.
What started as a simple flyer and a way for tribal leaders to share information is now a multi-media publication that offers the print cover at 75 cents.
Editor Sam Sandoval says the paper’s central focus is tribal matters.
“Charkoosta is a very community minded paper particularly to the tribal community,” Sandoval said.
With only two reporters, Charkoosta covers a variety of beats from legislative action to sports to events and has broken national news coverage.
The newspaper gets sent to print once a week, and has a mail subscription list.
Charkoosta says it is important for their subscribers to have a tangible record.
“It’s very important for us to focus on tribal people and their perspective on things,” Sandoval said.
For reporter Marianne Addison, some of her best stories are because of her personal connection to the community.
“I really care about the people that I work with or to tell their stories, I really feel like it’s important to get that side, that other people might dismiss or overlook or might not even care about,” Addison said.
She grew up on the Flathead Reservation, and said it is important to tell these stories from a tribal perspective. While Charkoosta's reporting covers thousands of miles across the nation, it's the impact in their backyard that empowers their work the most.
“Any news story that comes from like this valley or this reservation from a like a non-native source I could probably look at it and I would know a whole different side of that story even if it's like not the greatest story,” Addison said. “The media is gonna portray a certain way whereas I know this person personally. I know I grew up with them or I know their family or like you know they weren't always the way they were.”
“I always tell my reporters that we are telling peoples stories” Sandoval said. “But we are also documenting history as it’s happening.”
