commitment to diversity
I wrote this story as a News Editor in 11th grade, with Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Foo. I was inspired to pitch it after reading an NPR article detailing the reasons why more Indigenous people were showing up to the polls. In that article, I found a database for every Indigenous person running for election to public office, and I realized a human-interest news story could be told about the Californians on that spreadsheet.
Despite having a list of people to contact available at our fingertips, sourcing proved to be very difficult. Eventually, we interviewed the Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, Charlene Nijmeh -- who ran for Congress -- and Homestead High School teacher Shawnee Rivera - both of whom are Indigenous and involved or interested in politics.
Being able to tell their stories was an incredibly valuable experience. Diverse leadership is important for all of us, but especially for Indigenous people, who have historically had little voice in their direct governance. Through my authorship of this article, I learned about the history of Native leadership, and federal attempts to help Indigenous communities. When I read out the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs' claim that it had protected Indigenous communities through treaties, Ms. Rivera laughed.
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One unique thing we did with this article was add a land acknowledgement at the beginning. This is something El Estoque doesn't traditionally do, but both of our sources described feeling a connection to the land: for Ms. Nijmeh, the Ohlone land, which MVHS sits on; and for Ms. Rivera, the New Mexican land belonging to the Diné (Navajo) tribe. For these reasons, including a land acknowledgement felt relevant and necessary.
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Finally, our page design (below) further highlighted Indigenous voices, by including an attention-commanding image of Ms. Nijmeh on horseback in front of the U.S. Capitol -- the culmination of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe's Trail of Truth, a horseback march from California to Washington, D.C.
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Kathryn and I are not Native American, which made it an inspiring challenge to do our research, learn and connect with our sources and, through our writing, serve as a voice for the Indigenous community. The article received a Best of SNO, but the moment that made the experience feel the most rewarding was when Ms. Rivera sent me an email after our interview. At the very end, she wrote, "Thank you for listening to me tonight. I felt heard and seen. You have a gift."
