Smoke Signals wins seven journalism awards

Smoke Signals, the Tribe's twice monthly publication, won seven awards in mid-July at two journalism conferences put on by the Native American Journalists Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.

At the Native American Journalists Association annual convention held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Smoke Signals received first place in Associate News Story for Ron Karten's "Fish Returning to Agency Creek" and also took first in Best Layout for a bi-monthly publication -- Tribal member Justin Phillips is the Tribe's page designer -- and first place in Photography for Michelle Alaimo's feature photo "Graduation Gift."

Smoke Signals received a second place award in General Excellence.

At the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association convention held in Gleneden Beach, Smoke Signals was the only Tribal publication to be honored by the state's mainstream journalism professionals.

Tribal Graphic Design Specialist George Valdez received a first place award in Graphics for his Tomanowas timeline that appeared in the July 1, 2010, edition marking the Tribe's 10-year anniversary of visiting the Willamette Meteorite in New York City.

"Nice and clean," judges said. "Interesting, tells the whole story. Similar in high quality to a glossy pamphlet one would find in a museum. Nice use of assembled clip art and images to illustrate each entry in the timeline."

Smoke Signals also received third place awards for Target Audience and Design.

"The Tomanowas special section was well done with lots of art including a nice infographic that told the story for those unfamiliar with it," judges said about Design. "Overall a clean, spacious design with decent use of photography."

"There are only 15 awards given out in the Associate Member contest," said Tribal Publications Coordinator Dean Rhodes. "We were competing against larger papers, like The Portland Tribune and Capital Press, an agriculture newspaper out of Salem. To win 20 percent of the awards and be one of only four Associate Members to win an award is very impressive.

"I think these awards are a testament to the dedication, talent and professionalism of the Smoke Signals staff. They continue to go the extra mile to ensure the Tribal membership receives a newspaper that can stand with the best newspapers - Tribal and nonTribal - in the country and in Oregon."