The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
Russell Charles Means was an Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of Native Americans, libertarian political activist, actor, musician and writer. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in 1968 and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage.
Delphine Red Shirt is a Native American author and educator, who is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Red Power movement was a social movement led by Native American youth to demand self-determination for Native Americans in the United States. Organizations that were part of the Red Power Movement include the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC). This movement sought the rights for Native Americans to make policies and programs for themselves while maintaining and controlling their own land and resources. The Red Power movement took a confrontational and civil disobedience approach to inciting change in United States to Native American affairs compared to using negotiations and settlements, which national Native American groups such as National Congress of American Indians had before. Red Power centered around mass action, militant action, and unified action.
Timothy Antoine Giago Jr., also known as Nanwica Kciji, was an American Oglala Lakota journalist and publisher. In 1981, he founded the Lakota Times with Doris Giago at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he was born and grew up. It was the first independently owned Native American newspaper in the United States. In 1991 Giago was selected as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. In 1992 he changed his paper's name to Indian Country Today, to reflect its national coverage of Indian news and issues.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist U.S. federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilation of their people. These were in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereign entities. The organization continues to be an association of federally recognized and state-recognized Indian tribes.
Terri Crawford Hansen is a journalist who focuses primarily on environmental and scientific issues affecting North American tribal and worldwide indigenous communities. Hansen, an enrolled Native American citizen of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is a correspondent for YES! Magazine and Indian Country Today, and contributes to Earth Island Journal, Pacific Standard, High Country News, VICE News, PBS, BBC News and other news publications. Hansen maintains an online public service news project titled Mother Earth Journal.
Rob Capriccioso is a journalist and writer who founded the Indigenous Wire publication on the Substack platform. He is the first Indigenous journalist to receive a Substack Pro deal. Indigenous Wire covers policy, politics, media, economics and sovereignty issues.
Koahnic Broadcast Corporation (KBC) is a nonprofit media center that provides Native radio programming through Alaska Native governance and operation. KBC’s radio programming consists of National Native News, Native America Calling, and Indigefi, some of which can be heard nationally through their Native Voice One service. KBC also owns and operates KNBA located in Anchorage, Alaska, the first Native radio station in an urban market, and Rising Indigenous Voices Radio (RIVR), an internet radio station streaming modern Native music.
The Native American Journalists Associationis an organization dedicated to supporting Native Americans in journalism. The organization hosts the annual National Native Media Awards. It was launched from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.
MazaCoin is a cryptocurrency launched in 2014.
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart is a Native American social worker, associate professor and mental health expert. She is best known for developing a model of historical trauma for the Lakota people, which would eventually be expanded to encompass indigenous populations the world over. She is Hunkpapa/Oglala Lakota.
Heather Dawn Thompson is a Lakota attorney from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Thompson serves as the Director of the Office of Tribal Relations for the United States Department of Agriculture in the Joe Biden administration.
Blu Farias Hunt is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Inadu/The Hollow in The CW supernatural drama series The Originals (2017) and as August Catawnee in the Netflix science fiction drama series Another Life (2019–2021).
Native American newspapers are news publications in the United States published by Native American people often for Native American audiences. The first such publication was the Cherokee Phoenix, started in 1828 by the Cherokee Nation. Although Native American people have always written for state and local newspapers, including the official publications of Native American boarding schools, periodicals produced by Native people themselves were relatively few and far between until the 20th century.
The National Native American Hall of Fame, established in 2016 in Great Falls, Montana, with a working facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has the mission of 'honoring Native American achievements in contemporary society 1860's – present day', and was founded by Little Shell Chippewa James Parker Shield who now serves as chief executive officer after serving as Montana's State Coordinator of Indian Affairs as the first Native American in the staff of the Montana Governor's office. Founding partners include native polities the Navajo Nation, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Chickasaw Nation and amici cultura the NoVo Foundation of Jennifer and Peter Buffett, daughter in law and son of Warren Buffett, and the TIDES Foundation founded by Drummond Pike.
