Jim Kent. Photo from Facebook
Still Banging The Same Old Paper Drum
By Jim Kent
Lakota Country Times Columnist
www.lakotacountrytimes.com “Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon." So said Percy Shelley, considered among the finest poets in the English language. An impressive mindset for one who died at the tender age of 29 and long before his work had even begun to gain recognition. Of course, for many, laurels are all. They collect them. They wear them. They tack them on their wall. They share them – over and over…and over again. Case in point: a recent editorial in the Native Sun News – a regional Native American newspaper located in Rapid City, South Dakota, about 81.3 miles from the nearest Native American reservation (Pine Ridge) as the Google Map crow flies. Although the purpose of the commentary as inferred by its headline was to explore the current status of newspapers as a tactile experience in an ever-increasing digital world, its 564 words quickly declined into a blustering catalog of the publication’s positive points - from “used in classrooms ... as an educational and teaching tool” to publishing articles and columns “that make you think." Well, I should hope so. If you’re printing a publication that doesn’t make people think then please close down the presses and move yourself into the Trump supporter queue. As for being used in classrooms – welcome to the club. So many newspapers are, especially in “Small Town, U.S.A.," that choosing that as a qualifying boast of your singularity is like Subaru saying “we sell cars." Still, blow your own horn in your own editorial, if that’s what you need to do. I’ve always been a believer in allowing your work to speak for itself, but just as you please. What particularly caught my eye from the “resting on laurels” vantage point, however, was the editorial’s reference to the “old” Lakota Times – created by Native Sun News publisher Tim Giago in 1981, and the attempt to disparage “the late-comer” Lakota Country Times (which outdistances the Native Sun News with Facebook followers 249,000 to 18.000) by noting that the Lakota Country Times “is not connected to the original Lakota Times in any way, shape or form." I found that statement both ironic and absurd. Here’s why. Upon relocating to South Dakota from New Jersey in 1999, I was offered employment with a “new regional weekly Native American newspaper”. I was known to the editor since she was a former employee of “Indian Country Today” – a national Native American newspaper I’d been invited to write a regular guest column for while living on the East coast by then-editor Avis Little Eagle. “Indian Country Today” -- owned by Tim Giago -- had grown out of “the old Lakota Times." Giago had just sold the paper to the Oneida tribe, located in upstate New York, with the express agreement that “he” would not start another newspaper for two years’ time. The publisher of this “new regional weekly Native American newspaper” located in Rapid City was identified as Giago’s daughter. She explained to me that she had no newspaper experience and had been working as the manager of a video rental store in Las Vegas when she received the job offer. She didn’t say from whom.
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Tim Giago had an office immediately adjacent to the new newspaper - for his book publishing company – with a connecting door to the newspaper’s offices. And the name of this new paper was? The “New” Lakota Times – an obvious reference to Tim Giago’s first newspaper and an attempt to rest upon its laurels – though I was told Giago had nothing to do with this new paper. Even so, as the paper’s sole journalist – and then editor/journalist – I spent an inordinate amount of time assuring people that we had nothing to do with “the old Lakota Times”. This was said as the journalist – in order to get folks to agree to interviews and, as editor -- in order to get possible clients to agree to advertise with us. Apparently, there were many across Indian Country -- and beyond -- who were not impressed with “the old Lakota Times," or “the old Indian Country Today” for that matter. I guess the lesson to be learned here is that if you’re going to try to rest on your laurels, it’s best to make sure they’re not already wilted. After all, there’s nothing worse than sitting on an old, soggy newspaper. Jim Kent is a freelance writer and radio journalist who currently lives in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Jim can be heard on a variety of radio programs including National Public Radio, South Dakota Public Radio, and National Native News Radio. A former editor of The New Lakota Times, and a correspondent with a variety of Native American newspapers, Jim’s commentaries have appeared in national and international publications including U.S. News & World Report, Bergen Record (NJ), Suburban Trends (NJ), New York Daily News, Roanoke Times (VA), The Observer (OR) and American Heritage Magazine. Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter and download the new Lakota Country Times app today.
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