Noted Indian journalist Paul DeMain said he was mistreated by a Sawyer County deputy sheriff when he was trying to cover an accident on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation in Wisconsin.

DeMain, the editor of News From Indian Country, was shooting a video on August 7, 2008, when he was struck with a flashlight and was forced to stop recording. He believes the deputy confronted him because of his race.

"On a dark road on the reservation there's a guy standing there looking like an Indian which means he's nobody. He's not a reporter. He's not a blond with lipstick and a camera crew," DeMain tells KUWS Radio.

The county isn't commenting on the incident. Ron Washines, the president of the Native American Journalists Association, says it shouldn't have happened.

"[B]eing a Native American journalist doesn't carry as much weight I guess," Washines said. "And it frightens me in a way that I can't see why not."

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Indian reporters say they have to work harder for same journalistic rights (KUWS 3/30)