 | |
| Founded | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kelly Tidwell, Brittany Harlow |
| Headquarters | Broken Arrow, Oklahoma |
| Affiliations | LION Publishers, Builders + Backers |
| Website | www.verifiednews.network |
Verified News Network (VNN) is a Native American-owned digital media organization based in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation. Founded in 2018 by Kelly Tidwell and Brittany Harlow, VNN covers Indigenous and Native American issues.
VNN was founded in 2018 by operations manager Kelly Tidwell and journalist Brittany Harlow to address gaps in local news coverage of Indigenous and Native American topics. [1] [2] [3] In 2019, VNN partnered with BetaBlox, a Kansas City-based business incubator, to create VNN Media Services, which focuses on media sponsorship and operational support. [4]
In 2024, VNN organized an intertribal symposium on Native American history and donated $18,900 to the Tulsa City-County Library, granting public access to the Indian Rights Association Collection. [5] That same year, VNN participated in the Advancing Democracy fellowship, which focuses on political reporting and building trust in journalism. [6]
VNN primarily covers issues affecting Indigenous communities in Eastern Oklahoma. VNN conducts investigative reporting on historical topics like Tulsa’s Allotment Era and contemporary issues, such as self-defense legal cases.
Since 2021, VNN Oklahoma has reported on the April Wilkens case, examining issues of domestic violence and the treatment of criminalized survivors in Oklahoma's legal system, particularly concerning women. [7] [8] VNN has collaborated with tribal media outlets, including Osage News and Mvskoke Media. [5] In 2022, VNN joined over 160 journalism organizations in advocating for diversity reporting requirements in Pulitzer Prize eligibility criteria. [9] [10]
In 2023, VNN partnered with the Lucinda Hickory Research Institute on an investigative series examining Tulsa’s history and the impact of Native American allotments. [11] [12] [3]
VNN partnered with the Oklahoma Media Center on the "From Adversity to Entrepreneurship (FATE)" learning series, which addressed socio-economic challenges facing communities in generational poverty. [13] In 2023, VNN co-hosted the "Exploring Indigenous Allyship" community dinner to encourage dialogue on Indigenous issues and allyship in Oklahoma. [14]
In 2024, VNN partnered with Osage News to host the “Osage Oscars Watch Party” in Pawhuska. [15] VNN funded the licensing of 350,000 American Indian records for public access through the Tulsa Public Library System. [16] [17] [18] That same year, VNN launched the Citizen Journalism Project to train Indigenous and underserved individuals in journalism. [19]
Osage County is the largest county by area in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Created in 1907 when Oklahoma was admitted as a state, the county is named for and is home to the federally recognized Osage Nation. The county is coextensive with the Osage Nation Reservation, established by treaty in the 19th century when the Osage relocated there from Kansas. The county seat is in Pawhuska, one of the first three towns established in the county. The total population of the county as of 2020 was 45,818.
Barnsdall is a city in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,034.
Pawhuska is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,984. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, Paw-Hiu-Skah, which means "White Hair" in English. The Osage tribal government, which opened offices in Pawhuska in 1872 when its reservation was established in Indian Territory, continues to be based in Pawhuska.
The Osage Nation is a Midwestern American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th century due to Iroquois incursions.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands. They commonly refer to themselves as Este Mvskokvlke. Historically, they were often referred to by European Americans as one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board is the parole board of the state of Oklahoma. The board was created by an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution in 1944. The Board has the authority to empower the Governor of Oklahoma to grant pardons, paroles, and commutations to people convicted of offenses against the state of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council is an agency of the state of Oklahoma that provides professional organization for the education, training and coordination of technical efforts of all Oklahoma state prosecutors and to maintain and improve prosecutor efficiency and effectiveness in enforcing the laws of the state. The Council distinguishes itself from the District Attorneys Association, a private organization, in order to lobby the legislature, though it is composed of the same members.
Thlopthlocco Tribal Town is both a federally recognized Native American tribe and a traditional township of Muscogee Creek Indians, based in Oklahoma. The tribe's native language is Mvskoke, also called Creek.
The Indigenous Journalists Association is an organization dedicated to supporting Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples in journalism. The organization hosts the annual National Native Media Awards.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic anti-Western crime drama film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth. It is based on the 2017 book of the same name by David Grann. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on tribal land. The tribal members had retained mineral rights on their reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the wealth.
Julie Daniels is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma Senate from the 29th district since 2016.
This Land is an American political podcast produced and distributed by Crooked Media and Cadence13, and hosted by Rebecca Nagle. The podcast debuted on June 3, 2019 and follows the United States Supreme Court case Sharp v. Murphy. In addition, the podcast discusses various Native issues such as land rights, sovereignty issues, and the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Toni Hasenbeck is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 65th district since 2018.
Native News Online is an Indigenous-American focused news publication owned by Indian Country Media Network.
April Rose Wilkens is an American woman serving a life sentence at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center after her conviction for the murder of Terry Carlton and the subject of the podcast series Panic Button: The April Wilkens Case. She was one of the first women to use battered woman syndrome in an Oklahoma trial, and claimed to have acted in self defense, but it did not work in her favor and she was still found guilty by a jury. Local Tulsa news stations still to this day are hesitant to cover her case due to Carlton's family owning and operating dealerships which buy ad time from them. Her case caused an "outcry from those who say she acted because of battered woman syndrome." As of 2022, she was going into her 25th year of incarceration.
Tim Harris is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney for Tulsa County from January 1999 to December 31, 2014. Before his election in 1998, Harris had worked as a prosecutor for the Tulsa County District Attorney's office and briefly served as the interim District Attorney for Tulsa County between the death of David L. Moss and the appointment of Bill LaFortune in 1995. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Harris's tenure received new attention after some of the convictions from his tenure were overturned, including being a subject in an episode of Dateline NBC.
Steve Kunzweiler is the current Tulsa County District Attorney. He has worked on shows for the Forensic Files, See No Evil and 60 Minutes. He is on the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council.
Charles A. Johnson is a former judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, serving from 1989 to 2014.