This post is part of a series on the recipients of Press Forward’s Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps. Read the series here.

On Election Night, student Shia Blackcloud made her way to the studio at the University of Kansas to provide live coverage of local and national races. As a producer and anchor for Good Morning Indian Country, the Haskell Indian Nations University student co-leads the only Native-student-led newscast in the nation. The weekly program is unique in that it brings together University of Kansas students and Indigenous students from Haskell to work together on telling stories from across Indian Country respectfully, factually, and with the necessary context.

Over the past year, Blackcloud has covered a range of stories—from Native actress Lily Gladstone’s Oscar nomination to the bison harvest at Haskell, a community event that teaches traditional food preparation methods and honors traditional sustainability practices.

“I think it was just really important for me because it… shed light on what we do – and not so much as on what people think we do,” Blackcloud, Meskwaki Nation of the Mississippi River in Iowa, said of the bison harvest coverage.

Now, with Press Forward funding, Good Morning Indian Country can invest in training for the students, in addition to helping with transportation costs for the staff, said Melissa Greene-Blye, assistant professor at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications and faculty supervisor for Good Morning Indian Country.

Greene-Blye, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, also hopes that graduates of the program will help grow the ranks of Native reporters across the U.S.

Learn more about the program on The Nutgraph.

Image: Shia Blackcloud, right, is a producer and anchor for Good Morning Indian Country. Image courtesy of Good Morning Indian Country.