Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Changes at Press/ON

May 2, 2003
Managing editor Clara NiiSka is taking a leave of absence from Press/ON in order to focus on her academic work. During her leave, she hopes to complete an MA in Liberal Studies, as well as the preliminary work for her PhD dissertation, which focuses on aboriginal indigenous perspectives and language.

Clara's involvement with Press/ON began through her husband Wub-e-ke-niew, who wrote for this paper from its founding in 1988 until his death in 1997.

She delivered newspapers and did other odd jobs for Press/ON in the late 1990s, and then with the encouragement of publisher Bill Lawrence, started doing investigative reporting and writing. She began editing the paper after Julie Shortridge left to become director of public relations for Anoka County in April 2001.

"Clara is an excellent writer and a highly skilled researcher," Lawrence said, "and I look forward to her continuing to write occasional articles for the paper while she completes her schoolwork."

"She has been a key part of the staff at Press/ON," Lawrence added, "and the paper will change. It always changes, but it changes more dramatically when an editor leaves, particularly in a small paper like this where an editor has more influence, as opposed to larger papers where there is more of an institutional 'culture.'"

"I think Press/ON is happy to be, in effect, a training ground, and people working for this paper are continually 'moving up,'" he added. "The only 'constant' is Bea," the Pekinese 'watchdog of public interest,' who's been with the paper for nearly nine years.

"I have always advocated open discussion, addressing community issues through dialogue, and freedom of the press on reservations," Clara said. "Press/ON's commitment to honesty, openness, and community empowerment is a powerful catalyst in addressing problems on several reservations, and the existence of the newspaper is - for all too many of the people I've talked to while working at the paper - a hope amid the sometimes oppressive conditions confronting Indian people."

"Bill would 'stop by' to visit Wub-e-ke-niew and me a couple of times a year at Red Lake," Clara added, "and almost every spring he brought his mother to visit our sugarbush. He knew that I know how to make maple sugar and pretty good frybread, that I had all sorts of non-marketable 'backwoods' skills like field-dressing a deer and gardening, and that I'd worked with Wub-e-ke-niew on the research for his book, We Have The Right To Exist. But, after my husband's death, Bill Lawrence took a chance and offered a job to someone who hadn't had a 'real job' in almost twenty years. That kind of gift cannot be repaid. I just hope that someday I'm in a position to 'pass it on.'"

During her leave, Clara NiiSka can be reached through her University of Minnesota email account at niisk001@tc.umn.edu

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