Overshadowing Red Lake

Native Americans are once again marginalized in media

by Poh Si Teng

Things would have been different if the Red Lake High School shooting occurred in a white suburb.

Instead, the tragedy struck an Indian reservation, 270 miles away from Minneapolis, where according to the U.S. Census, 98 percent of the 5,162 inhabitants are Native American.

On March 21, 16-year-old Jeff Weise shot his grandfather, a reservation police officer, and the grandfather’s girlfriend before driving to school and turning the gun on his schoolmates and himself. The shooting spree that claimed ten lives and injured 14, was under-reported in mainstream media.

Factors such as indifference in newsrooms and lack of reporters sensitive to Native American issues and customs are to blame for the massacre’s inadequate national coverage. Compared to 1999 Columbine High School trench-coat shooting, Red Lake has by far received much less attention.

Minneapolis’ Star Tribune reported that “some (critics) saw racism at play.” The media’s short attention span may have been because the shootings occurred in a community where a sweeping majority are Chippewa Indians, whereas Columbine is a predominantly white Denver suburb.

“When two students shot up Columbine High School in 1999, all three network anchors traveled to the Denver suburb to lead live coverage. No network anchors went to Red Lake,” mentioned Star Tribune staff writer Eric Black in his article.

Red Lake is a clear example of how important news – be they positive or negative – regarding Native Americans is constantly sidelined. It raises the question of whether people of color are less important and why stories about them are often seen as less exceptional.

When the Columbine shootings occurred, the media reported on how two seemingly normal kids could have gunned down their schoolmates without any remorse. Reporters and editors went to great lengths developing post-mortem analyses on the high school killers’ personalities, and their past experiences that nurtured such brutality.

However with Red Lake, the approach was different altogether. Initially, journalists scrambled for information regarding Weise’s introverted, loner behavior, as well as his hate messages on Neo-Nazi websites promoting racial purity on reservation ground. Mainstream press also briefly mentioned that Weise’s father had committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother suffered brain injuries from a car accident.

Their reports suggested that his rampage on the reservation ground was like an active volcano on the brink of eruption. Crime involving Native Americans, blacks, Latinos and other minorities are often projected in media as expected consequences derived from sociological and environmental factors.

Compared to crime coverage on whites, there is less reporting on the perpetrator’s personalities and psychological mindset. In the wake of the attacks, mainstream news highlighted the Chippewa teen’s background and violent inclinations, as well as the larger issue of economic and social hardships faced by Native Americans.

According to The Christian Science Monitor, “While incidents from Columbine to Jonesboro, Ark., demonstrate that school shootings can happen anywhere, sociologists have been concerned for years about violence among some Native American teenagers, and their high rates of suicide and substance abuse.”

Even beyond the recent tragedy, it would be fair to state that Native Americans are the minorities among other citizens of color when it comes to appearing in mainstream media. They hardly receive any coverage apart from news on gaming, drug abuse and the annual “Pow Wow” festivities.

The Star Tribune quoted former television news producer Danny Schechter on how upper-level management in the broadcasting industry felt toward Native Americans – that they “"spoke too slowly, don't express themselves in sound bites," and are culturally too different to connect emotionally with typical TV viewers.” He added that by comparison, the Columbine shootings were “full of what we call PLUs – People Like Us.”

The truth of the matter couldn’t have been better phrased. By not giving Red Lake fair and substantial coverage, news media is proving that Native American people don’t matter to a majority of folks living in the United States.

In addition to sheer ambivalence, the difficulty of gaining access to sources on reservation ground has made the media industry even more hesitant to pursue it. Many journalists simply do not know how to report on Red Lake without trampling the sensitivities of the grieving community.

In Rapid City Journal, Native American reporter Jodi R. Rave said, “Reporters were confined to a fenced area near the tribe's detention complex,” as tribal leaders were wary of journalists on the reservation. She added her frustration of being “left to deal with the baggage created by the mostly white press corps.”

Native American distrust of mainstream media is not unfounded. Due to decades of being constantly stereotyped, many tribal citizens have chosen to opt out from being reported on television, radio and print. Another factor that further perpetuates this problem is the lack of Native American journalists in the industry.

Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute member Dalton Walker who contributed to Dana Hedgpeth’s Washington Post article, mentioned that it would have been difficult to communicate with Weise’s family had he not been Native American.

Another factor that influenced Red Lake’s limited exposure included President Bush’s delayed reaction to the tragedy. Newsrooms across the country might have accorded the shootings more attention had he showed prompt concern. Instead, his immediate response to Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged white woman on a feeding tube, garnered excessive media interest that it outweighed the aftermath of the shootings.

Although the controversy revolving around Schiavo was no doubt crucial, it should not have overshadowed a grieving community battling to make sense of a senseless slaughter.

Deaths from school shootings, be it in Littleton, Colorado or Red Lake, Minnesota, are national concerns that should not be granted attention based on the community’s demographics. Such selective reporting is a major flaw in journalism. News media must reflect and represent people of all ethnicities because it is a medium that promotes and facilitates civic engagement. Journalists must achieve inclusiveness because their craft is a reflection of democracy.