Mark Trahant facts for kids
Mark Trahant is a journalist and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Idaho. He is known for starting Indian Country Today (now ICT), a news organization that focuses on stories about Indigenous people.
Career in Journalism
Mark Trahant has had a long and important career in journalism. He was a journalism professor at the University of North Dakota. He also used to be the president of the Native American Journalists Association, a group for Native American journalists.
Trahant was in charge of the opinion section at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. He led a team of writers and editors there. He also led the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, which helps train journalists.
He has worked at many newspapers. These include being a columnist for The Seattle Times, a publisher for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, and an editor for The Salt Lake Tribune. He was also a reporter for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. He has worked for several tribal newspapers too.
At a big journalism conference in 2004, Mark Trahant asked then-President George W. Bush about the meaning of tribal sovereignty. Tribal sovereignty means that Native American tribes have the right to govern themselves. President Bush replied that it means "It’s sovereign. You’re a ... you’re a ... you’ve been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity."
Books He Wrote
Mark Trahant has written several books. In 1996, he wrote Pictures of Our Nobler Selves. This book tells the history of how American Indians have contributed to journalism. It was published by Freedom Forum.
He also helped create an exhibit called The Whole Salmon in 2003. He wrote a chapter for the book Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes in 2006. This book shared Native American perspectives on the famous Lewis and Clark expedition.
In 2010, his book The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars was published. This book talks about a time when the U.S. government tried to end its special relationship with Native American tribes. It also covers how Native American tribes worked to gain more Native American self-determination in the mid-1900s.
Awards and Recognition
Mark Trahant has received many awards for his work. He was a finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. This was for a series of articles he co-wrote about federal Indian policy.
He has also won awards like Best Columnist from the Native American Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He was a Kaiser Media Fellow from 2009 to 2010. In 1995, he was a visiting scholar at The Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center. He also served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 and 2005.
About His Life
Mark Trahant lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He is married to Jaynie Parrish.
