11-04-2025
‘A call to do more': former ICT editor honored by Harvard
ICT Mark Trahant, former editor-at-large at ICT, has been selected for the 2025 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence for his 50-year long career in journalism and commitment to Indigenous storytelling.
"It's a wonderful surprise. Been a fan of I.F. Stone since I was a teenager. His journalism showed me what one person or even a small newsroom can do," Trahant said to ICT.
Trahant, Shoshone-Bannock, will receive his medal during a ceremony at the Nieman Foundation in May. The award is administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. 'Mark Trahant exemplifies the journalistic spirit of the I.F. Stone Medal in that he has always been an independent and courageous journalist. He resurrected Indian Country Today from the depths of closure to create ICT, a different kind of news organization built on Indigenous values. I am thrilled to see him being recognized through this distinguished award,' Karen Michel, president, chief executive officer and chief editorial officer of IndiJ Public Media, the parent company of ICT, said. Trahant directed the revival of Indian Country Today after the news organization went dark in 2017. He brought it back as a digital newspaper with a mobile-first approach in 2018 when it was previously owned by the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. Back then the newsroom had a staff of three and it grew to more than 30 employees in 2024. The newspaper expanded its coverage to a weekday national television program in 2020 and then turned into a weekly program in 2024.'The importance of Indigenous journalism grows as this country gets larger. It's impossible to understand this country's history — and its future — without including the people who have a 10,000-year history. So many of the problems we face today seem new, until you know how it fits into a longer arc,' Trahant said in a news release. 'I am honored to accept this I.F. Stone Medal. I see it as a call to do more.'
An independent committee of journalists chaired by PBS Public Editor Ricardo Sandoval-Palos oversees nominations and selection of the medal winner. The medal was established in 2008 and honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone. 'One of the pillars of I.F. Stone's work was its holding strong light to matters too often overlooked by national media. In Mark's work — in his outstanding career — we see a similar standard,' Sandoval-Palos said. 'The coverage he initiated with ICT and the high bar he set with his early work on corruption in government oversight of Indigenous affairs form a legacy that's improved the lives of many in this country. His work is an example we should all strive to emulate.'Trahant has served as editorial page editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; columnist at The Seattle Times; editor and publisher of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News; executive news editor at The Salt Lake Tribune; reporter at the Arizona Republic; and editor and publisher of The Navajo Times. He also started The Navajo Nation Today, a weekly newspaper, and worked for the Sho-Ban News. Trahant has served as president of the Native American Journalists Association (now the Indigenous Journalists Association), chairman of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and public information officer at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, 1988, Trahant was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for national reporting, recognized for a series he co-wrote for the Arizona Republic. He was the co-winner of the Heywood Broun Award. In 2017, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Two years later, he received the Indigenous Journalists Association's Medill Milestone Achievement Award. Then in 2023, he was inducted into the National Native American Hall of Fame. He was a journalism professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of North Dakota. Trahant was an editor-in-residence at the University of Idaho's School of Journalism and Mass Media and a visiting lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder.'For over 50 years, Mark Trahant has been a trailblazer — a reporter who broke down barriers and made sure the road was easier for those coming behind him. Mark sounded the alarm about the need for more Indigenous journalists in newsrooms and when no one listened, he created,' Jasmine Brown, I.F. Stone Medal jury member and a senior producer at ABC News' 'World News Tonight with David Muir', said.
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