"Astrid Munn's life changed the day she met Danelle Smith, an attorney from the Winnebago Tribe who opened the Scottsbluff woman's eyes to the legal needs of Native women.

Unsure about what she wanted to do after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Munn decided to study tribal law after meeting and interviewing Smith for a magazine that featured profiles of Native women called Native Daughters.

"Native Daughters had a huge role in what I'm doing right now," said Munn, now a second-year law student at Washington University in St. Louis. She plans to focus on tribal law and hopes to one day help Native women free themselves from domestic violence, she said.

Joe Starita, a UNL journalism professor, said Native Daughters has affected all of the student journalists who helped produce it in similar ways. He and other UNL instructors plan to give more students the opportunity to learn about and meet Native women this fall as the project continues with funding from an unlikely source."

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Kevin Abourezk: UNL journalism project on Native women gets $150K boost (The Lincoln Journal Star 2/27)