Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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December 12, 1992
BROADCASTING NEWS: There
is a group of people at Red Lake who
are in the process of starting an AM and FM radio station here. This is a community project that doesn’t
have anything to do with any government, including the Tribal Council,
because
government-run radio stations have inherent imbalance and conflict of
interest. In this “Age of Information,”
there are many needs in this community that are not addressed by
existing
broadcast media, and a community owned and operated radio station at
Red Lake
is sixty years overdue. The programming
that the organizers of this radio station plan include starting the day
with an
Ojibway prayer at sunrise; Anishinabe Ojibway music,
Country-and-Western music,
and other music that fits the taste of this community.
In the evening they plan to have news and
public affairs programming and also Traditional story-telling (for
example
Na-na-boo-zho stories and Zhe-bai (“ghost”) stories; community
announcements, and
other local programming. There are local
functions that need to be announced, and crises that arise, for example
accidents on the Lake where a radio station could provide help before
it’s too
late. The radio station will also
provide school announcements, local weather (North of the Continental
Divide),
and so on. They have been working on
this project for quite awhile and have a clear idea of how to serve
this
community’s needs. To you readers
outside of this economically depressed reservation: they need broadcast
equipment (transmitters, towers, studio equipment, etc.) and office
equipment
including a computer and typewriters.
Contact Francis “Boog” Downwind, Jr. at (218) 679-2368, or write
him at
P.O. Box 356, Redby, MN 56670. They
have a tax-exempt number and donations will be greatly appreciated as
well as
tax-deductible.
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