1st student-produced Native American journal in Arizona debuts
by Renee Schafer Horton on Dec. 13, 2008, under Education, Local, SpecialProduced by Indian, non-Indian UA students in their free time
Candace Begody is the editor and founder of Native Perspectives, a journal published by the Native American Journalists Association at UA.
A member of the University of Arizona Homecoming Court. A nationally recognized barrel racer. An assistant professor determined to resurrect a language.
These are the faces of the Native Americans in the first independent, student-produced Native American journal in Arizona.
The young Navajo behind it is a journalist on a mission to help fellow Native Americans connect with their culture and examine their identities.
Candace Begody, a UA journalism senior, founded a student chapter of the Native American Journalists Association last year with the goal of producing a news journal focused on Native voices and issues.
The first issue of Native Perspectives came out Wednesday, and about 50 people helped Begody celebrate the landmark.
Begody said she wanted to produce the 12-page tab-sized news journal because she didn’t think the mainstream media did a good job of covering Native American life.
Also, she wanted to support Native American UA students and offer them an avenue to discuss identity.
“People who come off the reservation get so homesick,” she said. “They may not have thought their culture was very important when they were there, but when they get here, they realize how important it is to hold on to who you are.”
Begody said Native Perspectives is unique among other Native American student publications because it was produced by students in their free time with no class associated with it.
Fourteen students representing seven Native American tribes joined eight non-Native American international students in producing the journal.
Begody found her staff through a call for authors on various university listservs. Response was slow in the beginning, but things started to pick up toward the end of the spring semester.
“At first it didn’t seem like we would have enough articles, which is why we decided to go with 12 pages,” she said. “But then we ended up having so much content that stories had to be cut, which was upsetting.”
Because only a handful of the staff are journalism students, Begody has had to give mini-tutorials on everything from journalism ethics to newspaper style, as well as provide story ideas and editorial direction.
The Navajo Times in Window Rock printed the journal free and delivered it to UA on Wednesday morning. Begody has been a freelance writer for the Times for two years.
She was also an intern at the Tucson Citizen in 2007.
Begody hopes readers find Native Perspectives enlightening.
“When people think of a Native person trying to make a difference, they often associate it with the term ‘militant’ or even ‘radical,’ ” she said. “But when you see these people we write about, you see them making a difference in other ways. I hope readers will read this and see that Native Americans don’t all live in tepees and they aren’t all alcoholics. They’re into sports, they’re into their careers, they’re into their language, their culture, their homes and families.”
The second issue of Native Perspectives will be published in late spring.
