Smoke Signals receives five NAJA awards

The Grand Ronde Tribal newspaper Smoke Signals won five awards, including three first places, in the 2019 Native American Journalists Association Native Media Awards for work published in 2018.

The winners were announced via e-mail on Wednesday, July 10, and the awards will be given out during a banquet to be held Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake, Minn., during the annual National Native Media Awards Conference.

Editor Dean Rhodes received a first-place award in the Best News Story category for “The New Normal,” which examined the effect of the Cowlitz Tribe’s Ilani casino on Spirit Mountain Casino one year after opening. The story appeared in the May 1, 2018, edition.

Staff writer Danielle Frost took second place in the Best News Story category for “Meteorite Impact,” which detailed the Tribe’s 2018 visit to Tomanowos at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The story appeared in the July 1, 2018, edition.

Former Smoke Signals photojournalist Michelle Alaimo took first place in Best Sports Photo for her photograph of Tribal member Jordan Reyes winning the 3A state wrestling title for Willamina High School in February 2018. The photo appeared in the March 1, 2018, edition. Alaimo left Smoke Signals in September 2018 to move to South Carolina.

Frost took second place in the Best Sports Story category for “Spikers,” which was about two Grand Ronde Tribal members who were playing community college volleyball. The story appeared in the Nov. 1, 2018, edition.

For the second consecutive year, Frost also received a first-place award in the Best Coverage of Native America category for her story “A Cultural Milestone,” which reported on the Grand Ronde Tribe’s successful return to Willamette Falls to traditionally fish for salmon off a removable platform in October 2018. The story appeared in the Nov. 1, 2018, edition and marked the third straight year that Smoke Signals has won the top award in this category.

Smoke Signals’ awards were in the Associate category for nonTribal members who work for Tribal publications that have a circulation of between 5,000 and 10,000 copies.

The five awards mark the 54^th time Smoke Signals has been honored by NAJA since 2008.