Smoke Signals starts podcast

Smoke Signals has started a new podcast on the hosting website Spreaker.com.

The first episode, posted on Thursday, Dec. 28, features Tribal Council Vice Chair Chris Mercier discussing podcasting and expansion of Tribal media outreach efforts and Editorial Board Chairwoman Siobhan Taylor talks about the board and its activities since it started meeting in June. The podcast can be heard at https://www.spreaker.com/show/2745752.

“I think that podcasting will augment and complement the news coverage offered to the Grand Ronde Tribal membership by Smoke Signals,” said Editor Dean Rhodes, who will host the podcast shows until a full-time podcast journalist is hired in 2018.

“I can see us highlighting news that occurs between our current publication cycle, which is the first and 15^th of each month, and also conducting more in-depth interviews with Tribal employees and Tribal members to complement stories that appear in the Tribal newspaper.”

Mercier has been a proponent of expanding Tribal media and the five-member Editorial Board accepted the responsibility and assigned Rhodes to create at least one podcast show before the end of 2017.

Tribal Lands Department Manager Jan Looking Wolf Reibach, a multiple Native American Music Awards recipient, granted Smoke Signals blanket permission to use his Native flute-oriented music in the podcast. The first episode features his song “Wind-Jammer” off his 2008 release “The Looking Wolf Project.”

“We will eventually ramp up to posting a weekly podcast,” Rhodes said. “As we start, I would suggest Tribal members keep checking out the Tribe’s Facebook page or visiting the Spreaker site for new shows.”

For more information about the podcast or to suggest show ideas, contact Rhodes at 503-879-1463 or dean.rhodes@grandronde.org.