Native News Network

Grand Rapids man's Native News Network tackles national issues from American Indian perspective

By Shandra MartinezLongtime activist Levi Rickert has always kept abreast of issues affecting American Indians. Now, he is helping others to stay informed as well.

The Grand Rapids resident has launched Native News Network, a website that offers stories about American Indians and mainstream issues from an American Indian perspective.And:Nearly all stories or editorials are written by Rickert, who served as agency director for the North American Indian Center in Grand Rapids from 1994-2000. His partner, Mike Mohan, is the news site’s publisher and webmaster.

Rickert, whose journalism experience has primarily been book reviews and essays for The Press, now writes at a grueling pace of about five stories a day, six days a week.And:His goal is to make the website look like a national news site.

“We didn’t want to look like a regional newsletter just for Indians or a blog,” Rickert said.

Since its launch in April, Native News Network has had more than 100,000 hits.

Rickert said he thinks the website offers something different than Indianz.com, which aggregates stories about Native Americans, including his.Comment:  Native News Network is also different from Pechanga.net, where I work.

I've already linked to dozens of Rickert's stories both here and on Pechanga.net. My hat's off to anyone who can write one or two stories a day, much less five. He's doing great work covering stories that no one else has covered.

For more on Native journalism, see Colonial Imagery in Canadian Newspapers and Native Can't Be Professors?!