VOA News: Oglala Sioux students get news to the community

Thursday, April 7, 2011  

"The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the American state of South Dakota is home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe. It's also where Nicky Oulette is in her first year as the journalism teacher at Little Wound High School.

NICKY OULETTE: "What else would make this a newsworthy story?"

STUDENT: "Human interest?"

NICKY OULETTE: "Totally human interest ... "

Ms. Oulette teaches the twelve students on the school newspaper, the Mustang News.

NICKY OULETTE: "They pick the articles that we write. Sometimes, if we're getting stuck, I'll kind of guide them along. Say, like, here's a couple of things that happened last week, here's who we can talk to. But, especially lately, they've been the one picking the articles. One girl wanted to write her own column, comparing the weather to different parts of her own life. One girl wanted to start writing some song reviews. So now, every two weeks, she'll pick out a couple of songs and write a review about them."

The reporters also cover news like a recent flood at the school caused by a broken water pipe. Yet the real story here is that Nicky Oulette is the school's first journalism teacher in years. The Mustang News had stopped publishing. But now, not only is it back, copies are included every other week in the Lakota Country Times, a local newspaper. This way, school news reaches parents and other people in the community.

NICKY OULETTE: "I know a lot of schools have their own newspaper or newsletter, but don’t know of many who have a newspaper for the school that's part of a reservation-wide or huge area-wide publications.""

Get the Story:
A School Newspaper Links Sioux Indian Teens to Their Community (Voice of America News 4/6)