American journalist
Mark Trahant is the editor-at-large of Indian Country Today, an Indigenous-focused news operation.
Career
Trahant is a former Charles R. Johnson Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota. He is a citizen of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, and a former president of the Native American Journalists Association.[1] Trahant is the former editor of the editorial page for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where he chaired the daily editorial board, directed a staff of writers, editors and a cartoonist.[2] He was chairman and chief executive officer at the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.[3] He is a former columnist at The Seattle Times and has been publisher of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in Moscow, Idaho; executive news editor of The Salt Lake Tribune; a reporter at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix; and has worked at several tribal newspapers.[2] He was an editor in residence at the University of Idaho. Trahant was a reporter on the PBS series Frontline with a story called "The Silence," about sexual abuse by clergy in Alaska.[4] At the 2004 UNITY conference in Washington, D.C., he asked George W. Bush what the meaning of tribal sovereignty was in the 21st century; Bush replied, "Tribal sovereignty means that. It’s sovereign. You’re a ... you’re a ... you’ve been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity."[5]
Books
Trahant authored The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars in 2010.
He authored Pictures of Our Nobler Selves, a history of American Indian contributions to journalism published by The Freedom Forum in 1996.[6]
He authored a commissioned work, The Whole Salmon, published by Idaho’s Sun Valley Center for the Arts.[7]
He co-authored his most recent book, Lewis & Clark Through Indian Eyes, an anthology edited by Alvin Josephy Jr.[8]
Honors and awards
Trahant, as a co-author of a series on federal Indian policy, was a finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.[2][9] Trahant’s awards and honors include Best Columnist from the Native American Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, a Ruhl Fellowship, and co-winner of the Heywood Broun Award. He was a 2009-2010 Kaiser Media Fellow.[10][11] In 1995 Trahant was a visiting professional scholar at The Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. He serves as a Trustee of the Diversity Institute, an affiliate of the Freedom Forum, based in Washington, D.C. Trahant was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 and 2005.
Personal life
Trahant lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He is married to Jaynie Parrish.
Panel: "Stop Making Native People “Political Fodder”" on DemocracyNow!, October 18, 2018