Tim Giago facts for kids

Timothy Antoine Giago Jr. (born July 12, 1934 – died July 24, 2022) was an important Oglala Lakota journalist and publisher. His Lakota name was Nanwica Kciji.

In 1981, he started the Lakota Times newspaper with Doris Giago. This happened on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he grew up. It was the first newspaper in the U.S. owned by Native Americans, not by a tribal government.

In 1991, he was chosen for a special program at Harvard University called a Nieman Fellowship. A year later, he changed his paper's name to Indian Country Today. This new name showed that the newspaper covered news for Native Americans across the whole country.

Giago sold Indian Country Today in 1998. Later, he started The Lakota Journal in 2000, selling it in 2004. In 2009, he began another paper, the Native Sun News, based in Rapid City, South Dakota. He also wrote columns for the Huffington Post.

He founded the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and was its first president. In 1979, Giago became the first Native American writer for a South Dakota newspaper, writing for the Rapid City Journal.

Tim Giago's Early Life and School

Tim Giago, also known by his Lakota name Nanwica Kciji, was born on July 12, 1934. He grew up on the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

He went to the Holy Rosary Indian Mission school. Later, he wrote poems and articles about how angry he felt. He wrote about his Lakota identity and culture being held back at the school. He studied at San Jose Junior College in California and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Tim Giago's Career in Journalism

Giago served in the U.S. Navy at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. He started writing there because his commander noticed he typed well. His commander asked him to create the base newspaper.

Giago also wrote personal stories and poems about his experiences at the mission school. These were first published in the Wassaja journal in the 1970s.

Starting His Own Newspaper

An editor named Jim Carrier saw Giago's writing and offered him a column for the Rapid City Journal. In 1979, his column, "Notes from Indian Country," became the first time a Native American voice was heard in a South Dakota newspaper.

This happened after the Wounded Knee incident in 1973. That event brought a lot of attention to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. But most newspapers in the state didn't cover it well.

A year later, the Rapid City Journal offered Giago a full-time job. He began to learn how the newspaper business worked. Sometimes, people told him he couldn't cover events on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They said he couldn't be "objective" (fair and unbiased) because he was Native American. He disagreed with this idea.

Founding the Lakota Times

In 1981, Giago moved back to the reservation. He started the Lakota Times with Doris Giago, who was his wife at the time. It was a weekly newspaper to share the lives of his neighbors.

This newspaper was special because it was the first independently owned Native American newspaper. Most other papers on reservations were owned by tribal governments.

At first, he made money by publishing the most complete list of pow-wows (Native American gatherings) in the country. He also sold ads related to these events. This helped him stay independent on the reservation.

He wrote articles criticizing U.S. and state policies about Native Americans. Soon, his columns were shared by many other newspapers. After he criticized the AIM's violence on the reservation, his offices were attacked with fire. But he slowly earned the respect of tribal governments. They supported his independence during tough times.

Supporting Native American Journalists

Over the years, Giago hired and trained many Native Americans. Some of them later became successful journalists at other newspapers and media companies.

He also founded the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and was its first president. The NAJA Foundation helps Native American students who want to become journalists. They offer scholarships and summer internships. The foundation also holds workshops for Native American journalists, publishers, and business people in the media.

Expanding and Selling Newspapers

Giago slowly expanded his newspaper's coverage. First, he covered all the Indian reservations in South Dakota. Then, he covered Native American issues across the whole country.

To show this national coverage, he changed the paper's name to Indian Country Today in 1992. In 1998, Giago sold the paper to the Oneida Nation in New York. At that time, the paper was making $1.9 million a year from ads. By 2005, it was the largest Native American newspaper, reaching all 50 states and 17 countries.

In 2000, Giago started The Lakota Journal. He sold it in 2004 to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, thinking he would retire. After The Lakota Journal stopped publishing, Giago started the Native Sun News in 2009 in Rapid City, South Dakota. He promised to continue his style of investigative journalism and broad coverage of Native American news. This paper is only published on paper. He also wrote columns for the Huffington Post, which is an online news source.

Tim Giago's Family Life

Tim Giago and his first wife, Doris, later divorced. They had started the Lakota Times together. Doris became the first Native American journalism professor at South Dakota State University (SDSU). She was also the first tenured Native American Professor in SDSU history. She retired in 2014.

His second wife was named Jackie. Tim Giago had twelve children.

Giago passed away in Rapid City, South Dakota, on July 24, 2022. He was 88 years old.

Books by Tim Giago

• The Aboriginal Sin: Reflections on the Holy Rosary Indian Mission School (Red Cloud Indian School), poetry, 1978.
• Notes from Indian Country, non-fiction, 1984.
• The American Indian and the Media, 1991.
• Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools, 2002.

Awards and Honors

• The Lakota Times/Indian Country Today won over 50 awards from the South Dakota Newspaper Association while Giago was the publisher.
• 1985, he received the H. L. Mencken Award for journalism.
• 1991, he was a Harvard University Nieman Fellow.
• He received the University of Missouri Distinguished Journalism Award.
• 2007, he was the first American Indian to be added to the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame.