Bob Burke Native American Reporting Center

The University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication recently took strides to expand coverage of Indigenous communities through the Bob Burke Native American Reporting Center. Though the need for direct reporting on Native issues and news is not new, it was promptly addressed once recognized by Pulitzer Prize winner John Schmeltzer, Engleman/Livermore professor, who has worked more than 30 years as a reporter, editor and writer and has been with OU since 2009.

“I was struck when I arrived in Oklahoma about the diversity of the state and yet no one seemed to know how various people, tribal members, freedmen or tribes had arrived,” said Schmeltzer. “Although they knew their own story about how they came to Oklahoma, many tribal members I asked did not know the stories about how other tribes came to wind up in the territory in the 1800s. I kept wondering why the state’s flagship university did not have a Native American reporting center given all of the Tribal nations.”

In May of 2019, Schmeltzer collaborated with Greg Anderson, a Gaylord graduate and then the education secretary of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, after hearing him speak at a Gaylord graduation ceremony. Anderson arranged for Schmeltzer to present his ideas to engage students in Native history to the Five Civilized Tribes.

Thanks to Schmeltzer’s vision, by fall 2019 a group of OU students and students at the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist University produced a 41-part series with two overview stories and an interactive map that permitted readers to see where the tribes had lived prior to being uprooted by the U.S. government. On March 1, 2020, the series debuted in the Tulsa World. It is still being used by newspapers across the state who did not start the series in 2020.

The series and stories begged the question: why was there no Native American reporting center? Schmeltzer, working with Elanie Steyn, now the college’s associate dean, presented the idea to the Native American Studies Department and the College of Law. After pitching the reporting center to Bob Burke, Burke promptly agreed to fund the important project - which launched with two classes in spring of 2021, taught by Kevin Kemper (Choctaw/Cherokee) and the college’s new data instructor.

After launching the initial two classes, Schmeltzer and Burke learned that Gaylord is the first to have a Native American reporting program. This project is long overdue and has been well received by students.

"As someone who is an indigenous journalist, I have full confidence that this collaborative project will be beneficial to both indigenous and non-indigenous student journalists alike,” said Nancy Spears, a Gaylord student journalist. “The bottom line is that covering Indian Country is complex and doing ethical coverage in indigenous communities requires bridging gaps across different cultures, different governments and even different languages. The Native American Reporting Center is a positive step toward elevating the unheard voices of Native American peoples in addition to increasing fair news coverage, which is so crucial to repair the distrust indigenous communities have with mainstream media. I am proud that my university has taken this committed step toward equality for indigenous communities. I look forward to seeing what good things can come from this collaboration and my role within it."

Continuing the momentum of the reporting center, Schmeltzer says they are currently working on a journalism minor for Native American Studies students.