By: E&P Staff The only newspaper serving Hopi American Indians will be folded, after the Hopi Tribal Council cut all its funding in a vote earlier this week.
The 6,000-circulation twice-monthly paper, the Hopi Tutuveni, was scheduled to publish a mid-December issue, but may not print another issue, its editor, Stewart Nicholas, told the Arizona Daily Sun in an unbylined story.
In a statement, the president of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) called the budget vote to eliminate the newspaper "personally and professionally disheartening."
NAJA President Ronnie Washines, managing editor of the Yakama Nation Review in Washington state, said the association understood the budgetary pressures the tribal government is under, but that "completely eliminating the tribal newspaper does more harm to a government working to improve its financial situation."
"A fully functioning government needs a voice that can disseminate updated news and information regarding the factual status of that government at any given time," Washines added. "Newspapers, especially tribal newspapers, are in a position to provide accurate news reports from a unique vantage point and the Hopi tribal members should not be denied their accessibility to such an important news source as the Tutuveni."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here