'Good Morning Indian Country' receives $100,000 from Henry Luce Foundation

LAWRENCE – “Good Morning Indian Country,” a Native student-led weekly news and information program produced collaboratively by University of Kansas journalism students and students from Haskell Indian Nations University, received a $100,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to identify the most promising ideas and projects to support, teaming up with exciting and diverse organizations — all in pursuit of its mission to nurture new ideas that affect the world. Through the foundation, “Good Morning Indian Country” (“GMIC”) students will receive training to ensure they are prepared to thrive in newsrooms nationwide after graduation.

“The funding will focus on specific skills training with the goal of helping ‘GMIC’ team members feel prepared to take the next steps to seek an internship or fellowship in a professional media environment,” said Melissa Greene-Blye, assistant professor in KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications and faculty supervisor for “Good Morning Indian Country.”

“This could include training on how to use field cameras to shoot content, how to edit content in (Adobe) Premiere Pro or how to create and build a rundown, among many other skills that will make them better prepared to see those bridge opportunities between student media and a full-time job in a newsroom.”

The funding will also help cover incidental costs for students such as transportation and parking. These are expenses that students often must absorb out-of-pocket, which can be prohibitive and prevent many students from seeking opportunities.

“Good Morning Indian Country” streams live on Facebook and features local and national news and weather from across Indian Country, interviews with Native newsmakers and information on upcoming events of interest to its audience.

Earlier this month, the “Good Morning Indian Country” crew covered election night through a Native lens not often present in mainstream media. They spoke with tribal leaders about the most important issues and provided live election updates in races with Indigenous candidates throughout the night.

Greene-Blye said she is grateful that the Henry Luce Foundation recognizes the value and importance of having Native students tell these stories in a way that ensures cultural accuracy and authenticity and steers away from stereotypes of Native communities in their storytelling.

“I have a ridiculous sense of pride in the work the students put in to make ‘Good Morning Indian Country’ successful; this is recognition that ‘GMIC’ is carving out important space for narrative sovereignty,” Greene-Blye said, “allowing us to speak back to a history of underrepresentation and misrepresentation in news and entertainment media.”

This is the second major grant “Good Morning Indian Country” has recently received, as it was selected to receive a $100,000 Press Forward grant in October to be dispersed over the next two years.